Nickel ferrite nanoparticles: an efficient and reusable nanocatalyst for a neat, one-pot and four-component synthesis of pyrroles

In this study nickel ferrite magnetic nanoparticles were applied as an efficient and reusable catalyst in the four-component synthesis of substituted pyrroles under neat conditions. The reaction was conducted using various amounts of catalyst at different temperatures and finally, application of 5 mol% of catalyst at 100 °C was determined as the optimum reaction condition. Results showed that nickel ferrite nanoparticles could catalyze the reaction at relatively short times (3–4 h) with high to excellent yields (70–96%). The catalyst could be recovered easily using an external magnetic field and reused nine times without any significant activity lost.