An efficient, recyclable and large-scalable fiber-supported Fe(III) catalytic system on a simple fixed-bed reactor verified in the Biginelli reactions

An efficient, recyclable and large-scalable fiber-supported Fe(III) catalytic system verifed in the one-pot multicomponent Biginelli reactions, is presented. The fiber catalyst was prepared conveniently from commercially available polyacrylonitrile fiber according to a simple two-step procedure by amination and chelation in water, and characterized detailedly with ICP analysis, morphology, mechanical properties, elemental analysis, FTIR spectroscopy, and SEM during the modification and utilization processes. Moreover, the fiber catalyst-mediated reactions showed broad applicability and proceeded smoothly to afford a series of substituted 3,4-dihydropyrimidin-2-(1 H )-ones/-thiones (yields 81–94%) in ethanol under mild conditions. Furthermore, the newly developed fiber catalyst held high strength, good flexibility and exhibited excellent stability and recyclability (over 10 cycles), and the procedure was operationally concise and effectively amenable to the gram-scale on a simple fixed-bed reactor with potential industrialization prospect.