Complex organic molecules are of great importance to research and industrial chemistry and typically synthesized from smaller building blocks by multistep reactions. The ability to perform multiple (distinct) transformations in a single reactor would greatly reduce the number of manipulations required for chemical manufacturing, and hence the development of multifunctional catalysts for such one-pot reactions is highly desirable. Here we report the synthesis of a hierarchically porous framework, in which the macropores are selectively functionalized with a sulfated zirconia solid acid coating, while the mesopores are selectively functionalized with MgO solid base nanoparticles. Active site compartmentalization and substrate channelling protects base-catalysed triacylglyceride transesterification from poisoning by free fatty acid impurities (even at 50 mol%), and promotes the efficient two-step cascade deacetalization-Knoevenagel condensation of dimethyl acetals to cyanoates.

复杂的有机分子对研究和工业化学非常重要，通常通过多步反应由较小的结构单元合成。在单个反应器中进行多次（不同）转化的能力将大大减少化学生产所需的操作数量，因此，非常需要开发用于这种一锅法反应的多功能催化剂。在这里我们报告了分层多孔框架的合成，其中大孔被硫酸化的氧化锆固体酸涂层选择性地功能化，而中孔被MgO固体基础纳米粒子选择性地功能化。