Continuous-flow Fe-zeolite-catalyzed temperature-directed synthesis of bioactive tetraketones and xanthenes using epoxides and cyclic-1,3-diketones via a Meinwald rearrangement

• Shankhajit Mondal^a
• Akanksha M. Pandey^a
• Boopathy Gnanaprakasam^a

• ^aDepartment of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Pune, Dr. Homi Bhabha Road, Pune 411008, Maharashtra, India

An environmentally benign approach for bioactive tetraketones using epoxides and cyclic-1,3-diketones in the presence of Fe-zeolite as a catalyst via a Meinwald rearrangement was developed under batch and continuous flow modes. Further increasing the temperature to 180 °C, these tetraketones underwent a cyclization reaction in the presence of catalytic Fe-zeolite to afford xanthene derivatives. Moreover, this Fe-zeolite catalyst was also used for the reaction of aldehyde and cyclic 1,3-diketone, affording the tetraketone in a high yield. Advantageously, the present approach enables gram-scale synthesis in batches as well as in continuous flow. This approach can sustainably generate many bioactive tetraketones and xanthenes as it does not produce any waste. The Fe-zeolite used in this process is easy to synthesize in the multigram scale, inexpensive, easy to recover, and recyclable.

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