MIL-101-SO3H metal–organic framework as a Brønsted acid catalyst in Hantzsch reaction: an efficient and sustainable methodology for one-pot synthesis of 1,4-dihydropyridine

Abstract

A straightforward and efficient methodology for the one-pot multicomponent synthesis of 1,4-dihydropyridine has been developed using MIL-101-SO₃H metal–organic framework as a solid Brønsted acid. The presence of the uniformly distributed Brønsted acidic sulfonic acid sites throughout the framework and the high stability bestow the catalyst with excellent reactivity towards the synthesis of 1,4-dihydropyridine under simple reaction conditions using renewable ethanol as the solvent. The present methodology tolerates various functional groups and allows the synthesis of 1,4-dihydropyridine derivatives in good to excellent yields through Hantzsch reaction. The developed methodology proceeds under mild conditions, avoids corrosive reagents and special reaction conditions, and is amenable to gram scale synthesis. The sustainable nature of the catalyst was proved by the easy recovery and the reusability of the catalyst, as it was reused several times without loss in activity, which was confirmed from the FTIR, PXRD and SEM analyses of the reused catalyst.