Potash Alum as a Sustainable Heterogeneous Catalyst: A One-Pot Efficient Synthesis of Highly Functionalized Pyrrol-2-ones and Furan-2-ones

An environment-friendly efficient one-pot, multicomponent condensation of different aldehydes and amines with dialkyl acetylenedicarboxylates, for the synthesis of polysubstituted pyrrol-2-ones and furan-2-ones is disclosed. Key features of this methodology is the use of Potash Alum (K [Al(SO4)2].12H2O) as an eco-friendly, economical and reusable solid catalyst. Use of inexpensive reagents, mild reaction conditions, operational simplicity, short reaction times, no need for chromatographic purification and high yields are the other key features of the disclosed strategy.