A green approach for one-pot synthesis of cyclic acetals in the presence of nano-γ-alumina supported BF3 as a heterogeneous solid acid catalyst

Abstract

BF3/γ-Al2O3 nanoparticles were prepared through the reaction of nano-γ-alumina with BF3.Et2O and were characterized by FT-IR, XRD, FESEM, TEM, EDS, EDS mapping and TGA. This solid acid catalyst was used for the synthesis of some cyclic acetals under thermal and solvent free conditions. The process has advantages such as short time times, easy purification technique and high yields. The work-up is easy and the catalyst is removed from the products by a simple filtration.