Zirconium chloride has been found to be a new and highly efficient catalyst for the aldol condensation of aldehyde and ketone under solvent free conditions, at room temperature. The reaction is very fast, clean and environmentally benign for the synthesis of variety of 1,3-diaryl-2-propenones. Zirconium chloride also found to be compatible with various solvents and gave the aldol product in acceptable yield (56-70%) but the excellent yield was obtained in solvent free condition. The higher mol% of the catalyst (zirconium chloride) yielded the 1,4-Michael adduct along with the aldol product. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.