Amino-functionalized porous chitosan as a solid base catalyst for solvent-free synthesis of chalcones

Background: The introduction of heterogeneous catalysts from biomass enables new opportunities for the development of heterogeneous base-organocatalysts for various organic syntheses. Among them, amino functionalized porous chitosan with high specific surface area has promising properties but its use as a base catalyst in chalcone synthesis is still rarely reported. Methods: Amino-functionalized porous chitosan as a solid base catalyst was fabricated from porous chitosan grafted with aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTMS). The prepared hybrid materials were characterized with pore and specific surface area (N2-sorption), FTIR, SEM, and accessible amine. Significant findings: The results reveal that the amount of APTMS had a significant effect on the physicochemi cal properties of amino-functionalized porous chitosan catalysts. The hybrid materials were employed as a solid base catalyst for solvent-free synthesis of chalcones. The catalyst offered good yield synthesis, lower temperature, less reaction time, highly selective, stable, recoverable, and can be reused four times without significant loss in performance.