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
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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.