Green chemistry approaches to the synthesis of 5-alkoxycarbonyl-4-aryl-3,4- dihydropyrimidin-2(1H)-ones by a three-component coupling of one-pot condensation reaction: comparison of ethanol, water, and solvent-free conditions.

A general and practical green chemistry route to the Biginelli cyclocondensation reaction using cerium(III) chloride as the catalyst (25% mol) is described under three different sets of reaction conditions. This method provides an efficient and much improved modification of original Biginelli reaction reported in 1893, in terms of high yields, short reaction times, and simple work-up procedure, and it has the ability to tolerate a wide variety of substitutions in all three components, which is lacking in existing procedures.