Abstract
Heterocycles are the most significant class of organic compounds
comprising a wide range of biological and pharmacological activities. In particular,
nitrogen and oxygen heterocycles are the important core structures, frequently found in
a large number of natural products and medicinally important molecules. Consequently,
great efforts have been made to develop direct methodologies for the synthesis
of these heterocycles including nanomaterial-catalyzed approaches. In this chapter, we
summarize the important synthetic methodologies for the synthesis of nitrogen and
oxygen-containing heterocycles involving nanomaterial catalyzed reactions. The
catalytic activity and the advantages of a variety of nanomaterials are described to
understand their importance as heterogeneous catalysts towards the synthesis of various
heterocyclic compounds.
Keywords: Heterogeneous catalysis, Nanocatalysts, Nanomaterials, Nitrogen heterocycles, Oxygen heterocycles.