Room temperature ligand-free CuO-HO catalyzed tandem oxidative synthesis of quinazoline-4(3)-one and quinazoline derivatives.

An efficient and simple copper catalytic system has been developed for the synthesis of medicinally important 2-substituted quinazoline-4(3)-ones from 2-aminobenzonitrile and benzyl alcohol derivatives and additionally 2-substituted quinazolines from 2-aminobenzylamine and benzaldehyde derivatives. Mild oxidant HO was utilized, providing excellent product yields. The molecular structure of one of the compounds was substantiated through SC-XRD. The versatility of the protocol was demonstrated through gram-scale syntheses.