Nano crystalline ZnO catalyzed one pot multicomponent reaction for an easy access of fully decorated 4H-pyran scaffolds and its rearrangement to 2-pyridone nucleus in aqueous media

A green and highly efficient protocol has been developed for the synthesis of 4H-pyran scaffolds installing a one-pot three-component coupling reaction of an aldehyde, malononitrile, and a 1,3-diketo compound using nano structured ZnO as the catalyst in aqueous alcoholic medium. A greener method to synthesize 3,4-dihydropyridin-2-one has also been developed by rearranging 4H-pyran derivatives in aqueous medium applying p-TSOH as the right catalyst source. A wide spectrum of functional groups was tolerated in both the developed synthetic protocols with good to excellent yield of the targeted molecules.