Polyvinyl amine as a modified and grafted shell for Fe3O4 nanoparticles: As a strong solid base catalyst for the synthesis of various dihydropyrano[2,3-c]pyrazole derivatives and the Knoevenagel condensation

In this work, we reported one-step deposition of polyacrylamide on nano-magnetite surface via a simple and in situ polymerization of acryl amide to form n-Fe3O4/PAM nanocomposite. The amide (–CONH2) groups could be converted easily to amine (–NH2) groups through Hofmann degradation to introduce n-Fe3O4/PVAm as a highly efficient heterogeneous base catalyst. The obtained organic-inorganic nanocomposite exhibited high catalytic activity for the solvent-free syntheses of various dihydropyrano[2,3-c]pyrazole derivatives and the Knoevenagel condensation in high to excellent yields and in the following, a plausible mechanism for the synthesis of them has been proposed. Because of the polymer layer coated Fe3O4 nanoparticles, the catalyst has many catalytic units, and acceptable thermal stability and recyclability. Titration, FT-IR, SEM, TGA, VSM, and XRD analysis were used for characterization of the catalyst. Also, the nanocomposite can be easily recovered by a magnetic field and reused up to 9 times without distinct deterioration in catalytic activity. Keywords: Functional polymers, Heterogeneous catalysis, Knoevenagel condensation, Functional organic sites, Pyranopyrazole