A novel nanostructured catalyst namely silica-bonded imidazolium-sulfonic acid chloride (SBISAC) wasprepared, and fully characterized by several techniques including Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy(FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), differential thermal gravimetric(DTG), scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and energy disper-sive X-ray analysis (EDX). The nano-compound was applied as an efficient and heterogeneous catalyst inthe synthesis of hexahydroquinolines via the one-pot multi-component condensation of arylaldehydeswith dimedone (5,5-dimethylcyclohexane-1,3-dione), -ketoesters and ammonium acetate under mildand solvent-free conditions
