Sonochemical synthesis of chromenes catalyzed by L-phenyl alanine-attached nano-Fe3O4@SiO2

An efficient multi-component synthesis of 10,10-dimethyl-7-(phenyl)-10,11-dihydrochromeno[4,3-b]chromene-6,8(7H,9H)-diones is described by a one-pot condensation reaction of aldehydes, dimedone and 4-hydroxycoumarin using L-phenyl alanine tethered to nano-Fe3O4@SiO2 under ultrasonic irradiation. The catalyst has been characterized by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) and vibrating-sample magnetometer (VSM). Atom economy, wide range of products, high catalytic activity, excellent yields in short reaction times, reusability of the catalyst and low catalyst loading are some of the important features of this protocol. [GRAPHICS]