Synthesis of ferrocene-4-methoxycinnamaldehyde chalcone
Preparation of raw materials
To synthesize ferrocene-4-methoxycinnamaldehyde chalcone, the corresponding raw materials need to be prepared. Ferrocene is an important starting material with a unique sandwich structure, stable properties and often used as a key intermediate in organic synthesis. 4-methoxycinnamaldehyde is also indispensable. The aldehyde group in its molecule is connected to the benzene ring to give special reactivity. In addition, a suitable catalyst and solvent are also required. The catalyst can be selected from basic reagents, such as sodium hydroxide, which can effectively promote the reaction. The solvent is selected from polar organic solvents, such as ethanol or dichloromethane, to ensure good solubility of the raw materials and smooth progress of the reaction.

REACTION STEP
1. ** FIRST STEP REACTION **: The ferrocene is placed in the reaction vessel, an appropriate amount of solvent is added, and stirring makes it fully dissolved. Then a specific amount of alkali catalyst is slowly added. Under mild heating conditions, the alkali catalyst prompts a specific reaction of ferrocene, changes its electron cloud distribution, and makes it more nucleophilic.
2. ** SECOND STEP REACTION **: After the reaction system in the first step reaches a specific temperature and degree of reaction, 4-methoxy cinnamaldehyde is added dropwise. The aldehyde part of 4-methoxy cinnamaldehyde undergoes a nucleophilic addition reaction with the ferrocene activated by the first step reaction to form an intermediate product. The progress of the reaction is closely monitored during the reaction process. TLC and other means can be used to judge the degree of reaction progress according to the change of spots.
3. ** The third step reaction **: The intermediate product undergoes intramolecular rearrangement and elimination under the continuous action of the alkali catalyst, and finally forms ferrocene-4-methoxycinnamaldehyde chalcone. This stage requires strict control of the reaction temperature and time. Excessive temperature or too long time may lead to side reactions, affecting the purity and yield of the product.

After the separation and purification of the product
After the reaction is completed, the reaction mixture is cooled. First, most of the solvent is removed by reduced pressure distillation, and then an appropriate amount of water is added to the remaining mixture, and the extraction is carried out with an organic solvent. Select a suitable organic solvent, such as ethyl acetate. According to the principle of similar phase solubility, ferrocene-4-methoxy cinnamaldehyde chalcone can be dissolved in it and separated from impurities. The organic phase is collected, dried by anhydrous sodium sulfate, and the organic solvent is removed by distillation under reduced pressure again to obtain a crude product. In order to obtain a high-purity product, the crude product can be further purified by column chromatography. Silica gel is used as the stationary phase, and a suitable eluent is selected, such as petroleum ether and ethyl acetate mixture. According to the difference in the partition coefficient between the product and the impurity between the stationary phase and the mobile phase, the product and the impurity are separated, and the pure ferrocene-4-methoxy cinnamaldehyde chalcone is finally obtained.