Vol.:(0123456789) Research on Chemical Intermediates https://doi.org/10.1007/s11164-021-04473-z 1 3 Solvent free, environment benign synthesis of 1,4‑dihydropyridines and polyhydroquinolines by using heterogeneous Zn/MCM‑41 catalyst Shankar D. Dhengale 1,2  · Vaibhav M. Naik 3  · Govind B. Kolekar 3  · Chandrashekhar V. Rode 2  · Prashant V. Anbhule 1 Received: 31 January 2021 / Accepted: 16 April 2021 © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2021 Abstract Heterogeneous catalysis has been utilized in number of efcient reactions with higher selectivity of the product, more stable, reusable and easy for separation as compared to homogeneous catalysts. Generally, heterogeneous catalysts are prepared by using mesoporous materials, microporous materials, metal oxides and metal organic framework. The mesoporous materials have small particle size and high surface area as compared to the microporous materials. The adsorbent mesoporous materials have highly efcient for the therapeutic applications in chemistry hence it has best as compared to other heterogeneous materials. Herein, we have reported synthesis of 1,4-dihydropyridines and polyhydroquinolines at solvent free and envi- ronmental benign condition in the presence of Zn/MCM-41 catalyst. The present protocol gives excellent yield (89–96%) of the product within short reaction time by easy work up procedure and no need of further purifcation of product. The catalyst was characterized by XRD difractometer, SEM, EDAX, TGA-DTA, BET surface area analysis and FT-IR Spectroscopy. The synthesized organic compounds were characterized by FT-IR, 1 H NMR, 13 C NMR, LC–MS spectrometry. * Prashant V. Anbhule pvanbhule@gmail.com 1 Medicinal Chemistry Research Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, Shivaji University, Kolhapur 416004, India 2 Chemical Engineering and Process Development Division, CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory, Dr. Homi Bhabha Road, Pune 411008, India 3 Fluorescence Spectroscopy Research Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, Shivaji University, Kolhapur 416004, MS, India Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.