Preparation and characterization of Fe3O4@SiO2/APTPOSS core-shell composite nanomagnetics as a novel family of reusable catalysts and their application in the one-pot synthesis of 1,3-thiazolidin-4-one derivatives

Octakis[3-(3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane)propyl]octasilsesquioxane (APTPOSS) as a polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane derivative was prepared and used as a pioneer reagent to obtain a novel core-shell composite using magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles as the core and the inorganic-organic hybrid polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane as the shell. Fe3O4@SiO2/APTPOSS were confirmed using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering, thermogravimetric analysis, X-ray diffraction and vibrating sample magnetometry. The inorganic-organic hybrid polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane magnetic nanoparticles were used as an efficient new heterogeneous catalyst for the onepot three-component synthesis of 1,3-thiazolidin-4-ones under solvent-free conditions. Moreover, these nanoparticles could be easily separated using an external magnet and then reused several times without significant loss of catalytic activity. Copyright (C) 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.