ABSTRACT
In a mixture consisting of catalytic quantities of diethylamine, sodium dodecyl sulfate, and a zirconium salt in water, 2,2-dimethyl-1,3-dithian-5-one undergoes double aldol condensation with two folds of aromatic aldehydes at 50oC to yield the respective bisarylmethylidene derivatives efficiently within 2 h. The products precipitate in the reaction mixtures spontaneously, perhaps due to high polarity of the medium, avoiding time-consuming and expensive chromatographic separations. Thus, products are isolated easily by a simple filtration and recrystallization from ethyl acetate, while the filtrate was recycled successfully for subsequent reactions.
GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT
Acknowledgements
Authors would like to thank the Analytical Chemistry Department for conducting some of the analysis experiments.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.