Chitosan-aluminum oxide nanocomposite was synthesized, characterized, and used as a green heterogeneous catalyst to synthesize novel imidazopyrazolylthione derivatives. Nanocomposite polymeric material was characterized by EDS-SEM and XRD. The powerful catalytic activity, and its base character of the nanocomposite, was used to synthesize imidazopyrazolylthione (1) in a good yield compared to traditional cyclocondensation synthesis. Using the nanocomposite catalyst, substitution of the thiol group (1) afforded the corresponding thiourea (2) and the corresponding ester (3). The efficiency of the nanocomposite over the traditional base organic catalyst, Et3N and NaOH, makes it an effective, economic, and reproducible nontoxic catalyst. Moreover, the heterogeneous nanocomposite polymeric film was easily isolated from the reaction medium, and recycled up to four times, without a significant loss of its catalytic activity. The newly synthesized derivatives were screened as antibacterial agents and showed high potency. Molecular docking was also performed for a more in-depth investigation. The results of the docking studies have demonstrated that the docked compounds have strong interaction energies with both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria.
Keywords: aluminum oxide; antibacterial activity; chitosan; heterogeneous catalysis; imidazopyrazolthione; molecular docking; nanocomposite.