Chinese Journal of Catalysis ›› 2015, Vol. 36 ›› Issue (3): 425-431.DOI: 10.1016/S1872-2067(14)60222-9

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Aqueous asymmetric aldol reaction catalyzed by nanomagnetic solid acid SO42-/Zr(OH)4-Fe3O4

Tao Wu, Jingwei Wan, Xuebing Ma   

  1. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
  • Received:2014-07-13 Revised:2014-09-02 Online:2015-02-14 Published:2015-02-14
  • Supported by:

    This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21071116).

Abstract:

Magnetic solid acid catalysts SO42-/Zr(OH)4-Fe3O4 were prepared using magnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles, ZrOCl2·8H2O, and sulfuric acid as starting materials in the calcination temperature range 110-650 ℃. The properties of the magnetic solid acid, such as loaded SO42- content, acid distribution, surface morphology, and porous structure, were characterized. In the aqueous asymmetric aldol reaction of various benzaldehydes with strong electron-withdrawing groups (R=NO2 and CN), good to excellent catalytic performance (83%-100% yield, 86.0%-95.6% ee anti, and anti/syn=88-96/12-4) was achieved. These nanomagnetic solid acids can be quantitatively recycled from the reaction mixture using an external magnet and reused five times without significant loss of catalytic activity.

Key words: Solid acid catalyst, Magnetism, Aldol reaction, Asymmetric catalysis, Aqueous phase