Optimization of Cu catalysts for nitrophenol reduction, click reaction and alkyne coupling

Abstract

Earth-abundant nanocatalysts are actively searched to replace expensive noble metal catalysts for a number of essential processes. Here, Cu catalysts have been designed based on manganese oxide octahedral molecular sieve (OMS-2) supports to optimize the catalytic activity in nitrophenol reduction, CuAAC click reaction and terminal alkyne homocoupling. A correlation has been established between the different synthetic strategies and catalytic activities. CuO_x/OMS-2 has also been found an efficient catalyst for the homocoupling of terminal alkynes, click reaction and the reduction of 4-nitrophenol, 2,4-dinitrophenol and 4-nitrobenzene diazo tetrafluoroborate with high activity, whereas Cu-OMS-2 only shows poor catalytic activity for reduction and click reaction, and no catalytic activity for homocoupling.