Preparation and application of magnetic nanocellulose for synthesis of dihydropyrimidinones

In this work, magnetic nanocellulose (MNC) was prepared by cotton prewashing and hydrolysis in an alkaline medium together with coprecipitation of iron salts as Fe3O4 nano particles [1-3]. MNC is a safe, highly specific, low cost, biocompatible, and highly surface reactive catalyst [1,4]. MNC was characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray diffraction patterns (XRD), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET), field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), and vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM). Dihydropyrimidinones (DHPMs) are an interesting group of heterocycle compounds with broad spectrum of therapeutic and pharmaceutical properties [5]. The MNC was checked in synthesis of DHPMs in the absence of organic solvents exhibits a high performance for synthesis of various dihydropyrimidinones under solvent-free conditions. The advantages of the present method are deletion of organic and toxic solvents, short reaction time, easy separation of catalyst by an external magnet, low amount of catalyst, efficiency, and easy extraction of product from reaction mixture.