Ionic liquid-functionalized magnetic nanostructures as an efficient catalyst for the synthesis of 6H-chromeno[4,3-b]quinolin-6-ones

A novel imidazole ionic liquid (IL)-functionalized \(\hbox {silica}@\gamma \)-\(\hbox {Fe}_{2}\hbox {O}_{3}\) (\(\hbox {IL-SiO}_{2}@\hbox {MNP}\)) is prepared by the functionalization of \(\hbox {SiO}_{2}@\hbox {MNP}\) by 1-butyl-3-(3-trimethoxypropyl)-1H-imidazol-3-ium chloride as the IL moiety. The catalyst is characterized by transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscope, vibrating sample magnetometer, dynamic light scattering and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. \(\hbox {IL-SiO}_{2}@\hbox {MNP}\) showed good activity in the synthesis of 6H-chromeno4,3-b]quinolin-6-one derivatives via multicomponent reaction of 4-hydroxycoumarin, anilines and benzaldehydes. The nanocatalyst is magnetically separable and easily recoverable and showed successful activity up to 10 runs.