Bionanostructure-catalyzed one-pot three-component synthesis of 3,4-dihydropyrimidin-2(1H)-one derivatives under solvent-free conditions

•An environmentally benign biopolymer-based nanocomposite was prepared.•It was characterized by FT-IR, TGA, DSC, SEM and AFM analyses.•The first use of this nanocatalyst in the synthesis of dihydropyridinones•The products were obtained in high atom economy and easy work-up procedure.

In this work, chitosan/graphene oxide as a green bionanocomposite catalyst was synthesized and characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) spectra, thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images. Then, it was used as a nanocatalyst for the synthesis of 3,4-dihydropyrimidin-2(1H)-one derivatives by a one-pot three-component condensation reaction of benzaldehyde, 1,3-ketoesters and urea in excellent yields and short reaction times under solvent-free conditions. The reaction work-up was simple and the catalyst could easily be separated from the reaction mixture and reused in subsequent reactions.

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