One-pot synthesis of arylidene barbituric acid derivatives using Fe2O3 and Fe2O3/MFe2O4 (M = Cu, and Ni) nanoparticles as heterogeneous catalysts in Knoevenagel condensation reaction

In this paper, a facile one-pot two-component synthesis of arylidene barbituric acid derivatives (Knoevenagel reaction) in the presence of heterogeneous catalyst of as-prepared Fe2O3 and Fe2O3/MFe2O4 (M = Cu and Ni) nanoparticles under mild reaction condition is described and discussed. The as-prepared MFe2O4 nanoparticles were characterized by FT-IR, XRD, BET and SEM. They are used as efficient heterogeneous catalysts for the one-pot two-component synthesis of arylidene barbituric acid derivatives and the effect of important parameters such as solvent and amount of catalyst was investigated on the efficiency production of arylidene barbituric acid derivatives. The results of catalytic studies confirmed high activity of as-prepared nanoparticles as heterogeneous catalysts. Finally, the arylidene barbituric acid products were obtained on high purity. The products were characterized by FT-IR, 1H-NMR and melting point. This process is simple and provides high yields of products in short reaction times.