Synthesis of aryl-substituted pyridines via cyclization of N,N-dialkylanilines with ketoxime carboxylates under metal-organic framework catalysis

[Display omitted] •Fe3O(BPDC)3 was used as catalyst for synthesis of aryl-substituted pyridines.•Excellent yields were obtained.•The catalyst could be recovered and reused. Iron-organic framework Fe3O(BPDC)3 was synthesized, and subsequently utilized as an productive heterogeneous catalyst for the cyclization reaction of N,N-dialkylanilines with ketoxime carboxylates to produce aryl-substituted pyridines. This iron-organic framework catalyst demonstrated remarkably higher catalytic productivity for the synthesis of aryl-substituted pyridines as compared to numerous conventional homogeneous catalysts as well as MOF-based catalysts. It was possible to reuse the iron-framework catalyst in the cyclization transformation for numerous cycles without a noticeable decline in activity. To our best knowledge, this is the first heterogeneous catalytic approach towards the synthesis of aryl-substituted pyridines from ketoximes.