Development of a Sustainable and Solventless Friedel-Crafts Acylation Reaction of an Aromatic Natural Product “Ar-Himachalene” over Nanostructured ZnO as a New Catalyst

Abstract

We describe the development of a sustainable and solventless acylation reaction of the naturally occurring product, namely 2,5,9,9-tetramethyl-6,7,8,9-tetrahydro-5H-benzocycloheptene [ar-himachalene], with acid chlorides over a new type of flower-shaped ZnO nanosructure as a hetrogenous catalyst at room temperature. The ZnO nanoflowers can efficiently and selectively catalyze the acylation of the aromatic group of ar-himachalene and be reused up to three times by simple filtration and washing without significant loss in their catalytic activity.

Keywords: Acylation, Natural product, Solventless, Zin Oxide nanostructure, Heterogenous Catalysis, Sustainability.