A novel approach towards the one-pot synthesis of aryl-14H-dibenzo [a,j]xanthenes is described from a known reaction between substituted aldehydes and β-naphthol in the presence of heterogeneous catalyst silica sulfuric acid under conventional heating as well as solvent-free conditions to afford good to excellent yields. The catalyst is reusable; it can be used several times without any decrease in the product yield.Considerable interest has been focused on the synthesis of xanthenes; in particular, benzoxanthenes have attracted much attention in recent years because of their wide range of biological and pharmacological applications, such as antiviral [1], attention [2], and anti-inflammatory [3] properties. They also exhibited efficacy in photodynamic therapy [4,5] and are antagonists against the paralyzing action of zoxazolamine [6,7]. In addition, these compounds have also been employed as dyes [8,9], in laser technologies [10,11], and in fluorescent materials for visualization of biomolecules [12].The most commonly employed methods are available for the synthesis of xanthenes, and the synthesis of benzoxanthenes involves cycloacylation of carbamates [13], cyclodehydration [14][15][16][17][18], cyclocondensation between 2-hydroxy aldehydes and 2-tetralone [19], trapping of benzynes by phenols [20,21], intramolecular coupling reaction of benzaldehyde and acetophenones [22], aldehydes and β-naphthols by dehydration [15,[23][24][25], and β-naphthol with: i) formamide [26], ii) carbon monoxide [27], aldehyde acetals, and 2-naphthol-1-methanol [28]. Although some of these methods are useful, the majority of the above methods suffer from at least one of the following disadvantages: low yield, prolonged reaction time, use of toxic organic solvents, excess of reagents and catalysts, high cost, and susceptibility to moisture. There is still a need for an efficient economical and excellent yielding catalyst that can work under mild conditions and shorter reaction time and avoid the use of toxic reagents and solvents.
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