Hydroxyapatite supported copper catalyst for effective three-component coupling

The coupling of three-components, namely an aldehyde, an alkyne and an amine to prepare propargylamines was performed using copper exchanged hydroxyapatite (CuHAP) as the catalyst under mild reaction conditions and in the absence of any co-catalyst. A variety of aldehydes and amines were converted to the corresponding propargylamines, demonstrating the versatility of the reaction. CuHAP was recovered quantitatively by simple filtration and reused several times. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.