Magnetic dextrin nanobiomaterial: An organic-inorganic hybrid catalyst for the synthesis of biologically active polyhydroquinoline derivatives by asymmetric Hantzsch reaction

Dextrin is a low molecular weight polysaccharide obtained from natural resources. Due to exceptional properties such as chemical structure, having extreme reactive functional groups, low cost, commercial availability, non-toxicity and biocompatibility, it can be introduced as a green organocatalyst. The fabrication of hybrid materials from natural polymers and synthetic inorganic materials constructs compounds with new features, abilities and applications. Therefore, magnetic dextrin nanobiocomposite was prepared using a simple chemical co-precipitation. Then, it was characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis, vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) curve, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image, X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and inductively-coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES) analysis. Subsequently, to evaluate the catalytic performance of the synthetic hybrid catalyst, it was tested for the synthesis of biologically active polyhydroquinoline derivatives by four-component condensation reactions of aromatic aldehyde, ethyl acetoacetate, dimedone, ammonium acetate in ethanol under refluxing conditions. Experimental observations indicated some advantages of the present method, such as the use of green and biopolymer-based catalyst, simple procedure, mild reaction conditions, short reaction times (15–45 min), appropriate yield of products (70–95%) and catalyst reusability after five consecutive runs without considerable catalytic performance decrease.