title: Thermally decomposed mesoporous Nickel Iron hydrotalcite: an active solid-base catalyst for solvent-free Knoevenagel condensation.
abstract: Thermal decomposition of co-precipitated Ni-Fe-HT materials led to the formation a mesoporous Ni-Fe-HT catalyst and we have demonstrated here its active role as solid and active catalyst for the Knoevenagel condensation reaction of various aldehydes with active methylene compounds (R-CH2-CN, where R=CN or CO2Et). High product yields are obtained at moderate temperature under solvent-free conditions and the catalyst can be easily separated from the reaction mixture, simply by filtration and reused several times without a significant loss of its activity. Since these mesoporous metal oxides derived from the NiFe hydrotalcites, their basicity mediated abstraction of the acidic protons from the active methylene compounds was responsible for their catalytic activity under solvent-free conditions.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Advanced Materials and Industrial Chemistry, School of Applied Sciences, RMIT University, Melbourne 3000, Australia.
authors.forename: Deepa K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Dumbre
authors.affiliation: Nanotechnology and Catalysis Research Centre (NANOCAT), University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Tibra
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mozammel
authors.affiliation: Centre for Advanced Materials and Industrial Chemistry, School of Applied Sciences, RMIT University, Melbourne 3000, Australia.
authors.forename: Pr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Selvakannan
authors.affiliation: Nanotechnology and Catalysis Research Centre (NANOCAT), University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Sharifah Bee Abdul
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Hamid
authors.affiliation: Centre for Advanced Materials and Industrial Chemistry, School of Applied Sciences, RMIT University, Melbourne 3000, Australia. Electronic address: vrchoudhary@ncl.res.in.
authors.forename: Vasant R
authors.initials: VR
authors.lastname: Choudhary
authors.affiliation: Centre for Advanced Materials and Industrial Chemistry, School of Applied Sciences, RMIT University, Melbourne 3000, Australia. Electronic address: suresh.bhargava@rmit.edu.au.
authors.forename: Suresh K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Bhargava
keywords: Active methylene compounds; Aldehydes; Knoevenagel condensation; NiFeHT; Solvent-free reaction