A convenient and facile four-component synthesis is described of 2-amino-3-cyanopyridine derivatives from readily available starting materials catalysed by doped nano-sized Cu2O on melamine–formaldehyde resin (nano-Cu2O–MFR). In this method, treatment of different aldehydes, ketones, malononitrile, and ammonium acetate in refluxing H2O/EtOH (1:1) in the presence of doped nano-Cu2O–MFR as a highly efficient heterogeneous catalyst affords the corresponding 2-amino-3-cyanopyridines in good to excellent yields. The nano-Cu2O–MFR is a cheap and stable nano-catalyst that could be easily recovered and reused for many consecutive reaction runs without considerable decrease in its activity.
