Sulfonated magnetic sugarcane bagasse as an efficient natural polymer-based catalyst for the synthesis of nitrogen-containing heterocyclic rings in water.

A new species of catalysts that are prepared from biocompatible materials is demonstrated. Sulfonated magnetic sugarcane bagasse has been synthesized as a novel biodegradable and robust heterogeneous catalyst for organic transformations. The catalyst was characterized by different techniques. Next, the efficiency of this acid catalyst was examined with multi-component reactions for the synthesis of some biologically active scaffolds of heterocyclic organic compounds such 2,3-dihydroquinazolin-4(1H)-ones and pyrido[2,3-d]pyrimidin-4-one derivatives. A wide range of these heterocycles was synthesized with excellent yields in short reaction times under green conditions. In all cases, sulfonated magnetic sugarcane bagasse could be simply collected using an external magnet and reused for several runs without any significant loss of catalytic activity.