Nano-colloidal silica-tethered polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes with eight branches of 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane as high performance catalyst for the preparation of furan-2(5H)-ones

An efficient and rapid method for the synthesis of 3,4,5-substituted furan-2 (5H)-ones has been achieved through a three-component reaction of aniline, dialkyl acetylenedicarboxylate, and aromatic aldehydes using nano-colloidal silica-tethered polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes with eight branches of 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (nano-colloidal silica @APTPOSS) as a superior catalyst under microwave irradiations. Microwave irradiation (MWI) is utilized for a diversity of organic syntheses due to short reaction times, easy workup and good yields. The use of highly efficient, economic and retrievable catalysts, with low or nil toxicity is required from the green chemistry viewpoint. Nano-colloidal silica@APTPOSS has been characterized by 1H NMR spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering (DLS), scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). In this research, microwave irradiation is used as a green and complementary technique for preparation of furan-2 (5H)-ones. The reusability of the catalyst and little catalyst loading, excellent yields, short reaction times, using the microwave as green process and an alternative energy source are some benefits of this method.