“…The reaction can be visualized as proceeding through a Knoevenagel condensation product which is the key intermediate. In this step, the catalyst plays an important role in the condensation of the activated aldehydes (by the tribromide ions, [138,145] ionic liquids [141,146,147] and acid catalysts, including; (Lewis acid: transition metals [70,115,120,123,148] ) or (Brønsted-Lowry acid: acidic protons [131,135,149,150] )) with the active methylene compounds (dimedone or ethyl acetoacetate) in order to give an α,β-unsaturated intermediate. It is worth mentioning that, regarding the basic catalysts, the basic sites abstract the acidic proton of methylene compounds to promote the Knoevenagel condensation between the…”