R. Pagadala et al. / Catalysis Communications 45 (2014) 148–152
149
2
. Experimental
the reaction, the mixture was cooled to room temperature and extract-
ed with ethyl acetate. After filtering the hydrotalcite solid, the solvent
layer was washed with water, dried with anhydrous sodium sulfate
and the solvent removed to obtain essentially pure product 4a (93%
yield) as off-white solid. The recovered hydrotalcite solid was washed
with dichloromethane and evaporated solvent under reduced pressure
and reused in the next cycles.
2
.1. Preparation of hydrotalcite
The layered double hydroxide Zn-VCO
3
hydrotalcite with a molar
ratio of 1:0.8:0.2 was prepared by co-precipitation method at constant
pH. The mixed solution containing metal nitrates of Zn (Zinc nitrate)
and V (ammonium metavanadate) with desired concentrations,
0
2 3
.35 mol NaOH and 0.15 mol Na CO were added simultaneously
3. Results and discussion
to a 1 L beaker at the rate of 50 mL/h under constant stirring condition
at 35 °C at the pH of 10–11.5. The precipitate formed was aged for 18 h
at 65 °C at the end of which the precipitate was separated by filter. This
A systematic study was carried out to optimize the reaction condi-
tions, including the quantity of catalyst, reaction medium and nature
of catalyst. For the Hantzsch reaction of acetoacetanilide 1, with aromat-
ic aldehydes, 2a–f and ammonium hydroxide, 3 (molar ratio: 2:1:1.5)
was followed by repeated washing with deionized water until free of
−
NO
3
. The wet solid was slowly dried at 80 °C for 12 h to obtain the
hydrotalcite. The catalyst was calcined at 500 °C for 4 h.
(
Scheme 1), the results reflecting the impact of various parameters are
summarized in Table 1. Using NaOH and [Bmim]BF and ethanol,
4
2
.1.1. Characterization of catalyst and textural properties
The Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area, total pore volume
water or dichloromethane (DCM) as solvents, the reactions gave no
expected products (Table 1, entries 3–5). In solvent-free conditions
the desired product 4a was obtained with 55% yield (Table 1, entry 8)
under 60 °C using ionic liquid, [Bmim]BF4 as a catalyst. Best yields
were obtained using hydrotalcite as a heterogeneous catalyst in aqueous
media at 60 °C (Table 1, entry 11).
and average pore size were measured using a Micrometrics TriStar II
surface area and porosity analyzer. Prior to the analysis, the powdered
samples (∼0.180 g) were degassed under N
a Micromeritics FlowPrep 060 instrument. Textural properties of
2
for 12 h at 200 °C using
catalyst sample were measured by N
obtained at −196 °C.
2
adsorption–desorption isotherms
To establish the optimal amount of catalyst, the title reaction was
run with different initial amounts of the hydrotalcite (10, 20 and
30 mg) and the product yields were 60, 93 and 95% respectively
(Table 1, entries 11–13). The results suggest that for chosen reaction
conditions 20 mg of hydrotalcite catalyst was adequate to carry out
the reaction efficiently.
We next investigated the scope of reuse the hydrotalcite catalyst.
After completion of the reaction, task-specific hydrotalcite catalyst
was recovered and subjected to another run, affording the product in
93% yield. This process was repeated four more times, affording the de-
sired product in good yields, with undiminishing efficiency (Table 2).
The simple experimental and product isolation procedures combined
with the ease of recovery and reuse of the reaction medium are expected
to contribute to the development of a green strategy for the Hantzsch re-
actions. Using five different substrates, the formation of dihydropyridine
(4a–f) has occurred in good yields spontaneously and exclusively. Nota-
bly, even sterically hindered substrate also participated effectively to
afford the dihydropyridine derivative (Table 3, entry 6).
Based on the results of this study, it's clear that the hydrotalcite as
catalyst improves the yields of products significantly. The zinc and vana-
dium loading on hydrotalcite provided scope for altering the properties
like acidity, pore size and surface area resulting in appropriate surface
characteristics suited for its performance as good catalyst. The Hantzsch
reaction mechanism may cautiously be visualized to occur via a tandem
sequence of the reactions depicted in the reaction scheme in Mechanism
1. Possibly, the catalyzed reaction proceeds through a cyclic transition
state in the interlamellar space of the catalyst, which is helped by its high-
ly effective acid–base bi-functional surface character capable of mediating
the Hantzsch reaction and Michael addition of carbonyl compounds. We
propose, the surface Lewis base species abstracts active hydrogen of
acetoacetanilide as a pronucleophile in the aqueous phase to generate a
carbanion intermediate, which can be paired with the cationic surface
Metal oxide phases in the catalyst were observed using powder X-
ray diffraction (XRD) performed on a Bruker D8 Advance instrument,
equipped with an Anton Paar XRK 900 reaction chamber, a TCU 750
temperature control unit and a CuKα radiation source with a wave-
length of 1.5406 nm at 40 kV and 40 mA. Diffractogram was recorded
over the range 15–90 °C with a step size of 0.5 per second.
The Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) images were viewed
on a Jeol JEM-1010 electron microscope. The images were captured
and analyzed by using iTEM software. High resolution TEM images
were recorded by using a Jeol JEM 2100 electron microscope. The
Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) measurements were carried
out using a JEOL JSM-6100 microscope equipped with an energy-
dispersive X-ray analyzer (EDX). The images were taken with an
emission current = 100 μA by a Tungsten (W) filament and an acceler-
ator voltage = 12 kV. The catalysts were secured onto brass stubs with
carbon conductive tape, sputter coated with gold and viewed in a JEOL
JSM-6100 microscope. The pre-treatment of the samples consisted of
coating with an evaporated Au film in a Polaron SC 500 Sputter Coater
metallizator to increase the catalyst electric conductivity.
2
.2. General experimental procedure for the synthesis of dihydropyridine
derivatives
A mixture of freshly distilled benzaldehyde (1.0 mol) in water
2 mL) at room temperature, acetoacetanilide (2.0 mol), ammonium
(
hydroxide (1.5 mol) and hydrotalcite (20.0 mg) were added to a
round bottom flask equipped with a magnetic bar and condenser.
Then, the reaction mixture was heated at 60 °C for appropriate time as
shown in Table 3. The reaction progress was monitored by Thin Layer
Chromatography (TLC) (EtOAc/hexane = 5:5). After completion of
R
O
O
O
O
N
H
O
R
H
1
O
O
hydrotalcite
N
H
N
H
o
N
H
Water, 60 C
N
H
4a-f
NH OH
4
1
2
3a-f
Scheme 1. Multicomponent reaction catalyzed by hydrotalcite.