Magnetic Fe3O4@silica sulfuric acid nanoparticles promoted regioselective protection/deprotection of alcohols with dihydropyran under solvent-free conditions

Protection (and deprotection) of hydroxyl groups via tetrahydropyranylation was carried out effectively using a catalytic amount of Fe3O4 supported silica sulphuric acid nanoparticles (Fe3O4@SiO2@SO3H) under solvent-free conditions. The synthesized nanocatalyst was characterized by XRD, TEM, FT-IR etc. A wide range of tetrahydropyranylated alcohol derivatives were synthesized using this heterogeneous magnetic nanocatalyst within 10–20 min with high yields. In addition, tetrahydropyranyl ethers could also be deprotected to the parent alcoholic compounds in the presence of MeOH using the same catalyst. After completion of the reactions, the catalyst was easily separated from the reaction medium using an external magnet, which ameliorated the overall synthetic process. The catalyst was recovered and reused for five successive reactions without any appreciable loss in its activity. Mild reactions conditions, operational simplicity, solvent free conditions, high selectivity, easy recyclability of the magnetic nanocatalyst, and high yields can be considered as the advantageous features of our procedure.