Developing highly active heterogeneous catalyst with strong basicity and porous structure is a highly attractive strategy for the base-catalyzed organic chemistry. Herein, we directly synthesized the mesoporous zeolite ETS-10 (METS-10) from using a water glass contained cationic copolymer with quaternary ammonium groups as a template. Furthermore, when the nickel nitrate solution was added into the starting synthesis gel, the nickel species facilitated the mesopore formation, and the Ni-containing mesoporous zeolite ETS-10 (Ni-METS-10) was obtained. Catalytic test results showed that the conversions of the benzaldehyde and citral over Ni-METS-10 (88.8 and 63.2 %) and METS-10 (85.5 and 60.1 %) catalysts are higher than those over both mesopore-free ETS-10 (77.3 and 47.7 %) and mesoporous NaX (MNaX, 55.0 and 35.2 %) catalysts in the condensation reactions with ethyl cyanoacetate. The higher activity of METS-10 and Ni-METS-10 than ETS-10 and MNaX is assigned to the fact that the strong basic sites on the catalysts can activate the reaction substrate and the mesoporous in the catalyst benefit the mass transfer and enhance the catalytic activity.

Three uracil derivatives of methyl 3-(2,4-dioxo-3,4-dihydropyrimidin-1(2H)-yl)propanoate (I), methyl 3-(5-nitro-2,4-dioxo-3,4-dihydropyrimidin-1(2H)-yl)propanoate (II) and ethyl 3-(5-nitro-2,4-dioxo-3,4-dihydropyrimidin-1(2H)-yl)propanoate (III) have been prepared through one pot synthesis and examined by X-ray crystallography, FT-IR and NMR spectroscopy. Compound I, C8H10N2O4, is monoclinic with space group P 21/c and cell constants a = 11.4437(12), b = 11.7980(13), c = 6.9496(7) Å, β = 103.180(2)°, V = 913.57(17) Å3, and Z = 4. Compound II, C8H9N3O6, crystallizes in the monoclinic P 21 space group with cell constants a = 8.0342(14), b = 5.7155(10), c = 11.572(2) Å, β = 105.200(3)°, V = 512.79(16) Å3, and Z = 2. Compound III, C9H11N3O6, is Orthorhombic with space group P 212121 and cell constants a = 5.7560(16), b = 8.032(2), c = 25.302(7) Å, β = 90°, V = 1169.8(6) Å3, and Z = 4. The supramolecular architectures of the three compounds involve N–H···O hydrogen bond.

Two uracil derivatives of methyl 3-(5-fluoro-2,4-dioxo-3,4-dihydropyrimidin-1(2H)-yl)propanoate (1) and methyl 3-(5-chloro-2,4-dioxo-3,4-dihydropyrimidin-1(2H)-yl)propanoate (2) were synthesized and characterized by elementary analyses, MS, IR and NMR. The crystal structures of 1 and 2 were determined by means of X-ray diffraction. Compound 1 crystallized in the monoclinic P21/c space group with a = 7.4213(9), b = 5.8480(7), c = 23.248(3) Å, and β = 108.184(4)°. Compound 2 crystallized in the monoclinic P21/c space group with a = 12.5754(12), b = 4.9363(5), c = 16.5352(15) Å, and β = 97.455(3)°. The thermal stabilities of 1 and 2 were studied by DSC–TGA techniques. The UV spectra indicated that the two compounds interacted with DNA by electrostatic binding.