Abstract

The salient features of clays, their modified forms (pillared and ‘doped’ with reagents) and their application in organic synthesis are described. A wide variety of chemical reactions such as addition, isomerization , rearrangement, electrophilic substitution etc. are presented including the utility of clay-supported reagents and their application in conjunction with microwave irradiation under solvent-free conditions. In the later category, cleavage, condensation , cyclization , oxidation and reduction reactions are described including the efficient one-pot assembly of heterocyclic molecules from in situ generated intermediates such as enamines and α-tosyloxyketones. Multicomponent reactions are highlighted that can be adapted for high speed parallel synthesis of the library of compounds.