N-Propylsulfamic acid supported onto magnetic FeO nanoparticles (MNPs-PSA) as a green and reusable heterogeneous nanocatalyst for the chemoselective preparation and deprotection of acylals

Abstract: N-propylsulfamic acid supported onto magnetic FeO nanoparticles (MNPs-PSA) was simply synthesized and used as a highly efficient, environmentally friendly, and chemoselective catalyst for the synthesis of 1,1-diacetates (acylals) from the one-pot condensation reaction of various aromatic aldehydes with acetic anhydride, in high yield of products (86–96%) and short reaction time (20–60 min) under solvent-free conditions at room temperature. In addition to these results, we further studied the possibility of deprotection of the resulting acylals into benzaldehyde derivatives in this catalytic system by the addition of water. More importantly, noteworthy advantages of this study are non-use of toxic organic solvents and catalysts, simple work-up procedure, short reaction time, high yield of products, and recovery and reusability of MNPs-PSA by an external magnet. Graphical Abstract: A simple and highly efficient procedure for the protection of various aldehydes with acetic anhydride in the presence of N-propylsulfamic acid supported onto magnetic FeO nanoparticles (MNPs-PSA) is reported. We further studied the possibility of deprotection of the resulting acylals into benzaldehyde derivatives in this catalytic system by the addition of water as a green solvent. The catalyst was reused several times without loss of its catalytic activity.