A green synthesis approach toward large-scale production of benzalacetone Claisen-Schmidt condensation.

Claisen-Schmidt (CS) condensation between acetone and benzaldehyde with NaOH as the catalyst is a well-recognized pathway for the synthesis of benzalacetone (BA). However, this process is compromised by a side reaction, , a second CS reaction between benzaldehyde and the BA product. In this work, we designed a stirring-induced emulsion synthesis technique for the cyclic and scaling-up production of BA with 99 ± 1% selectivity, without the use of surfactants.