Amino acid-based ionic liquid immobilized on α-Fe2O3-MCM-41: An efficient magnetic nanocatalyst and recyclable reaction media for the synthesis of quinazolin-4(3H)-one derivatives

•(α-Fe2O3)-MCM-41-l-prolinium nitrate is a new magnetically recoverable nanocatalyst.•Combination of ionic liquid and magnetic mesoporous silica as reaction medium and catalyst without using extra organic solvents.•Chemoselective formation of aromatic quinazolinone product instead dihydroquinazolinone.

For the first time, we report the synthesis and the application of magnetic nanocatalyst (α-Fe2O3)-MCM-41-l-prolinium nitrate which was characterized by XRD, TEM, IR, X-ray energy diffraction (XED) spectra and nitrogen physisorption measurements. l-prolinium nitrate (fully green amino acid-based ionic liquid) inside the mesochannels of (α-Fe2O3)-MCM-41 lead to prepare a new solid catalyst which was used as an efficient heterogeneous catalyst for the one-pot oxidative cyclization straight synthesis of quinazolin-4(3H)-one derivatives from isatoic anhydride, aldehyde or alkyl halide and primary amines under mild reaction conditions without using any oxidant with good to excellent yields. Moreover, it was proven that in these reactions, the use of such a hybrid material as a catalyst plays the role of rendering the reactions while neither the (α-Fe2O3)-MCM-41 nor the l-prolinium nitrate were not able to promote this reaction in the desired pathway toward the above mentioned product. The characteristic features of this catalyst are attributed to both acidic and oxidative behavior of the catalyst.

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