Nano-Silica Sulfuric Acid Catalyzed The One Pot Synthesis of Anthraquinones from Benzene Derivatives

Abstract

Anthraquinone compounds are well-known and are widely used in the dye industry, medicine and food chemistry. 9,10-Anthraqinone derivatives, as the largest group of naturally occurring quinines, are of fundamental importance both in industry and medicine [1]. They are well known to play an outstanding role in drug structure and in the treatment of various human cancers [2]. 9,10-Anthraquinones are important compounds used in the field of dyes and pigments [3]. The anthraquinone dyes have excellent light and good hydrolytic stability under heat and pH conditions. Anthraquinone based dyes are highly resistant to microbial degradation because of their fused aromatic structure. In this research, we were reported a simple and efficient method for such a reaction by using nano-silica sulfuric acid (NSSA), a green, safe, recyclable and heterogeneous catalyst. This method offers several noteworthy advantages including high yields of products, easy work-up, in combination with stability, reusability, non-toxicity, mild reaction conditions, easy preparation and cheapness of the catalyst. Moreover, this method has the ability to tolerate a wide variety of substituents in aromatic compounds. All of the results are reproducible and the reactions can be carried out on a gram scale.