A reactive and environmentally friendly protocol for expeditious synthesis of various resorcinarenes using zinc hydrogen sulfate

In this work, for the first time, metal hydrogen phosphates and sulfates have been studied as effective solid acid catalysts for the condensation of resorcinol with aromatic and aliphatic aldehydes to give tetrameric cyclic products, resorcinarenes, which have major roles in biological and industrial activities. This catalyst has several advantages, it is non-toxic, thermally and mechanically stable, inexpensive and highly resistant against organic solvents. It increases the reaction rate about six fold and makes this method an attractive alternative to the existing methods for resorcinarene formation. Interestingly, the present catalyst exhibited a high turnover number (TON) and turnover frequency (TOF) which were even comparable with that of HCl.