Nanometric-Thick Metal-Free h-Boron Nitride/Graphene Films as Base Catalyst for the Synthesis of Benzoxazoles

[EN] Catalysts are frequently used as pelletized powdered materials, but rarely as thin films. The present work reports the use of 2D h-boron nitride on few layers defective graphene (h-BN/fl-G) films of about 10 nm thickness as base catalyst for the synthesis of benzoxazoles by coupling a 2-amino-phenol with p-substituted benzaldehydes. The synthesis of benzoxazole derivatives has aroused much interest in the last decades due to their application as potent anticancer agents against MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells. The results demonstrate that these nanometer-thick films exhibit three orders of magnitude higher activity than K2CO3 taken as benchmark base catalyst. The activity and selectivity of h-BN/fl-G films depend on the nature of substituents on benzaldehyde, the solvent and reaction temperature. Financial support by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Severo Ochoa and RTI2018-89237-CO2-R1), Generalitat Valenciana (Promoteo 2021-032) and UEFISCD (PN-III-P4-ID-PCCF-2016-0088, PN-III-P4-ID-PCE-2020-1532) is gratefully acknowledged. A. P. thanks the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion for a Ramon y Cajal research associate contract. Rendón-Patiño, A.; Primo Arnau, AM.; Cojocaru, B.; Ion, SG.; Popescu, DG.; Parvulescu, V.; García Gómez, H. (2022). Nanometric-Thick Metal-Free h-Boron Nitride/Graphene Films as Base Catalyst for the Synthesis of Benzoxazoles. ChemCatChem. 14(12):1-7. https://doi.org/10.1002/cctc.202200356