Application of sulfonic acid fabricated cobalt ferrite nanoparticles as effective magnetic nanocatalyst for green and facile synthesis of benzimidazoles

This work represents the design and synthesis of efficient sulfonated cobalt ferrite solid acid catalyst. The synthesized solid acid green catalyst was characterized using various techniques viz. FT-IR, powder XRD, SEM, TEM and VSM. The obtained catalyst was used to synthesize biologically significant 2-substituted benzimidazole derivatives by condensation between o-phenylenediamine with various aromatic, aliphatic and heterocyclic aldehydes. High yield (up to 98 %), short reaction time (10-25 min), mild reaction condition, wide functional group tolerance, easy work-up procedure and excellent values of green chemistry metrices such as lower E factor (0.126), high RME value (88.83 %), carbon efficiency (100 %) and high atom economy (AE) value (90.65 %), are some salient features of the present catalytic system. Moreover, the catalyst recovery by simply using an external magnet and catalyst reusability up to 7 times without any significant loss in catalytic efficiency are some additional remarkable features of the current protocol.

Automated summary

The work involved the design and synthesis of an efficient sulfonated cobalt ferrite solid acid catalyst, which was used for the synthesis of biologically significant compounds with high yield, short reaction time, and excellent green chemistry metrics.