L-Cysteine functionalized magnetic nanoparticles (LCMNP): a novel magnetically separable organocatalyst for one-pot synthesis of 2-amino-4H-chromene-3-carbonitriles in water

In this study, L-cysteine was chemically grafted to magnetic nanoparticles in order to prepare a reusable magnetic material incorporating an amino acid moiety. For this purpose, silica-coated magnetic nanoparticles (Fe3O4@SiO2) were reacted with trimethoxy(vinyl) silane to produce vinyl-functionalized magnetic nanoparticles (VMNP). Reaction of a VMNP substrate with L-cysteine in the presence of azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN) resulted in the production of L-cysteine-functionalized magnetic nanoparticles (LCMNP). The LCMNP material was characterized using different microscopy and spectroscopy techniques such as FT-IR, XRD, TEM, SEM, EDX, VSM, and elemental analysis. Also, LCMNP was analyzed by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) in order to determine its thermal behavior. The applicability of the LCMNP material was evaluated in a three-component coupling reaction between a nucleophile, salicylaldehyde and malononitrile as the catalyst for one-pot synthesis of 2-amino-4H-chromene-3-carbonitrile derivatives. The catalyst system showed high catalytic activity in this process and target products were obtained in high isolated yields in water as a green solvent. The LCMNP catalyst was reusable in this reaction at least 7 times with no significant decrease in its catalytic activity.