The designed nanocatalyst Fe3O4@SiO2–NH2 was highly active for selective synthesis of nitroalkenes through cooperative trifunctional catalysis of primary amine, secondary amine and Si–OH groups.
Base-catalyzed Michael addition of nitroalkane to conjugated nitroalkene suffers serious practical difficulties due to the formation of oligomeric byproduct. Given its importance for synthesis of pharmacologically relevant organic compounds, a scalable synthesis of 1,3-dinitroalkane is developed by addition of nitroalkane to nitroalkene in aqueous phosphate buffer at pH 7.0 with no added traditional base catalyst.