Acylation of Phenols, Alcohols, Thiols, Amines and Aldehydes Using Sulfonic Acid Functionalized Hyper-Cross-Linked Poly(2-naphthol) as a Solid Acid Catalyst

The hyper-cross-linked porous poly(2-naphthol) fabricated by the Friedel–Crafts alkylation of 2-naphthol has been functionalized with sulfonic acid to obtain a solid acid catalyst. The catalyst is applied for the protection of phenol, alcohols, thiols, amines and aldehydes with acetic anhydride at room temperature. The catalytic protection using the new solid acid is featured by achieving high yield at neat condition, needing no aqueous work-up and/or chromatographic separation, and showing excellent recycling efficiency, suggesting the potential of this sulfonated porous polymers as a new protection protocol in a wide range of sustainable chemical reactions. Graphical Abstract An efficient and eco-friendly method has been developed for the protection of phenols, alcohols, thiols, amines and aldehydes with acetic anhydride in presence of sulfonic-acid-functionalized hyper-cross-linked poly(2-naphthol) as a solid acid catalyst.