In the presence of diethyl 1,4-dihydro-2,6-dimethylpyridine-3,5-dicarboxylate（DHP） and a catalytic amount of potassium iodide,severalα-halo ketones were easily reduced to the corresponding ketones in acetone media.The procedure presented here showed several merits such as short reaction time,practical experimental and isolated procedure,and excellent yields of products.
Poly（vinyl chloride） supported tetraethylenepentamine （PVC-TEPA） has been found to be an efficient catalyst for the Knoevenagel condensation. A wide range of aromatic aldehydes easily undergo condensations with ethyl cyanoacetate and malononitrile in the commercial 95% ethanol in refluxing using PVC-TEPA as catalyst to afford the desired products of good purity in moderate to excellent yields. A recycling study confirmed that the catalyst could be reused, the yield of the desired condensation product were not reduced. The merits of this protocol are environmentally benign, simple operation, convenient work-up and good yields. Furthermore, the catalyst can easily be recovered and reused at five times with comparable yields.
