Mesoporous silica SBA‐15 functionalized with acidic deep eutectic solvent: A highly active heterogeneous N‐formylation catalyst under solvent‐free conditions

Mesoporous silica SBA‐15 functionalized with N ‐methylpyrrolidonium‐zinc chloride based deep eutectic solvent (DES) is found to be a more efficient and reusable catalyst for a convenient N ‐formylation of a variety of amines at room temperature. N ‐Formylation of primary, secondary as well as heterocyclic amines have been carried out in good to excellent yields by treatment with formic acid in low loading of DES/SBA‐15 an environmentally benign catalyst for the first time. The DES/SBA‐15 catalyst, which possesses both Brønsted and Lewis acidities as well as an active SBA‐15 support, makes this procedure quite simple, reusable, more convenient and practical. This catalyst was tolerant of a wide range of functional groups, and it can be reused for four runs without obvious deactivation.