Synthesis and application of a novel strong and stable supported ionic liquid catalyst with both Lewis and Brønsted acid sites

•The acidity of catalyst can be controlled by varying the relative amounts of AlCl3.•The catalyst is stable (as a bench top catalyst) and reusable.•Biscoumarins were prepared in short reaction times with high yields.

Poly(4-vinylpyridine)-supported ionic liquid with both Lewis and Brønsted acid sites was easily prepared from its starting materials and used as a novel and highly efficient heterogeneous catalytic system for the synthesis of biscoumarins by two-component one-pot domino Knoevenagel-type condensation/Michael reaction between various aliphatic and aromatic aldehydes with 4-hydroxycoumarin. The Lewis and Brønsted acidic sites loading in [P4VPy-BuSO3H]Cl-X(AlCl3) were found to be 2.15 and 0.9 mmol per gram of catalyst, respectively. The effect of the simultaneous presence of Lewis and Brønsted acid sites was evaluated. The catalyst was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), elemental analysis, and atomic absorption technique. The catalyst is stable (as a bench top catalyst) and reusable.

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