Investigation of Fe3O4@boehmite NPs as efficient and magnetically recoverable nanocatalyst in the homoselective synthesis of tetrazoles

Abstract

Magnetic boehmite nanoparticles (Fe₃O₄@boehmite NPs) were synthesized from a hybrid of boehmite and Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles. At first, boehmite nanoparticles (aluminum oxide hydroxide) were prepared via a simple procedure in water using commercially available materials such as sodium hydroxide and aluminum nitrate. Then, these nanoparticles were magnetized using Fe₃O₄ NPs in a basic solution of FeCl₂·4H₂O and FeCl₃·6H₂O. Fe₃O₄@boehmite NPs have advantages of both boehmite nanoparticles and Fe₃O₄ magnetic materials. Magnetic boehmite nanoparticles have been characterized by various techniques such as TEM, SEM, EDS, WDX, ICP, FT-IR, Raman, XRD and VSM. SEM and TEM images confirmed that particles size are less than 50 nm in diameter with a cubic orthorhombic structure. Then, Fe₃O₄@boehmite NPs were applied as a homoselective, highly efficient, cheap, biocompatibility, heterogeneous and magnetically recoverable nanocatalyst in the synthesis of 5-substituted 1H-tetrazole derivatives. Fe₃O₄@boehmite NPs can be recycled for several runs in the synthesis of tetrazoles. Also, all tetrazoles were isolated in high yields, which reveals high activity of Fe₃O₄@boehmite NPs in the synthesis of tetrazole derivatives. Fe₃O₄@boehmite NPs shows a good homoselectivity in synthesis of 5-substituted 1H-tetrazole derivatives.