Aluminum hydrogen sulfate turned out to be a mild, convenient, and efficient reagent for the conversion of substituted benzyl alcohols into pyrazolopyridines via condensation with 3-methyl-1H-pyrazole-5-amine and CH acid (malononitrile or indan-1,3-dione) at room temperature under solvent-free conditions with high yield, high purity, and short reaction time.Keywords: pyrazolopyridine, solvent free, aluminum hydrogen sulfate, green catalyst 1 The text was submitted by the authors in English.The use of solid acids in organic reactions is important since solid acids have many advantages such as simplicity in handling, decreased reactor and plant corrosion problems, and more environmentally safe disposal. On the other hand, any reduction in the amount of liquid acid is required for economic and environmental protection. Among solid acids, Al (HSO 4 ) 3 is a useful alternative to nitric acid as oxidant. The pyrazolopyridine ring system represents the core skeleton of a number of pharmaceutically important heterocyclic compounds possessing a broad range of biological activity, in particular potent cyclin kinase 1CDK1) inhibitors [1], HIV reverse transcriptase inhibitors [2], CCR1 antagonists [3], protein kinase inhibitors [4], inhibitors of cGMP degradation [5], xanthine oxidase inhibitors [6], and antiviral [7], antimalarial [8], vasodilator [9], antimicrobial [10], anti-inflammatory [11], anxiolytic [12], hypoglycemic [13], and antitumor agents [14].In continuation of our ongoing studies on the synthesis of heterocyclic and pharmaceutical compounds using mild and practical protocols [15][16][17][18], herein we report our experimental results on the synthesis of Al (HSO 4 ) 3 and its application as a green oxidizing catalyst for the synthesis of pyrazolopyridines from different substituted benzyl alcohols, malononitrile or indan-1,3-dione, and 3-methyl-1H-pyrazol-5-amine under solvent-free condition (Scheme 1). To the best of our knowledge, there has been no report on the synthesis of pyrazolopyridine based on alcohols.With the catalyst in hand (see Experimental), we moved to study the effect of the catalyst amount on the model reaction of 4-nitrobenzyl alcohol (Ia) with malononitrile (II) and 3-methyl-1H-pyrazol-5-amine (IV). No reaction occurred in the absence of Al(HSO 4 ) 3 even after extending the reaction time, whereas 10 mol % of Al(HSO 4 ) 3 was sufficient to push the reaction forward; lower or higher amount of the catalyst did not improve the yield of pyrazolopyridine Va. The effect of various solvents on the transformation of Ia into Va in the presence of Al(HSO 4 ) 3 (10 mol %) was studied. Acetonitrile, n-hexane, ethanol, chloroform, and acetone, as well as solvent-free conditions, were tested