An efficient and facile green method for synthesis of 3-methyl-4-(phenyl)methylene-isoxazole-5(4H)-one (4a-m) via room temperature reaction of hydroxylamine, ethylacetoacetate and substituted aromatic aldehydes is designed, using Ag/SiO 2 as catalyst with water as solvent. This protocol offers several advantages, such as it being a benign, energy conserving and eco-friendly reaction with products obtained in excellent yields (88-93 %). The reaction requires relatively short reaction times (\1 h), a simple workup procedure with good atom efficiency and easily recoverable catalyst. The heterogeneous catalyst, Ag/SiO 2 , was fully characterized and is reusable without loss of activity for up to seven cycles with marginal activity loss.
Graphical AbstractN O O CH 3 OEt O O NH 2 OH.HCl CHO R R Ag/SiO 2 H 2 O / R.T, 1h 4a-m Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (