Fe3O4@L-arginine as a Reusable Catalyst for the Synthesis of Polysubstituted 2-Pyrrolidinones

Abstract

Background: This research introduces an effective and green method for the synthesis of polysubstituted 2-pyrrolidinone derivatives as biologically-active heterocyclic compounds using multi- component reactions using Fe3O4@L-arginine as a reusable organocatalyst. Material and Method: The Fe3O4@L-arginine nanoparticles were prepared by a facile one-step approach and the structure elucidation of the magnetic nanocatalyst has been done using various spectroscopy techniques. Results: L-arginine-functionalized magnetite nanoparticles were obtained with particle sizes around 10 nm. Fe3O4@L-arginine exhibited strong catalytic activity to obtain some polysubstituted 2- pyrrolidinone. Conclusion: The considerable advantages of this research are short reaction times, excellent yields, simple workup procedure and reusability of the nanocatalyst which is in good agreement with green chemistry disciplines. The study on the reusability of the Fe3O4@L-arginine nanoparticles showed that the recovered catalyst could be reused six consecutive times.