In this work, a novel nanostructured silica-bonded ionic liquid namely silica-bonded imidazolium-sulfonic acid chloride (SBISAC) has been prepared, and characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), differential thermal gravimetric (DTG), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) spectra. Then, SBISAC was utilized as an efficient and heterogeneous nanocatalyst for the synthesis of 12-aryl-8,9,10,12-tetrahydrobenzo[a]- xanthen-11-ones via the one-pot three-component condensation reaction of arylaldehydes with 2-naphthol and dimedone (5,5-dimethylcyclohexane-1,3-dione) under solvent-free conditions
