Mesoporous Copper/Manganese Oxide Catalyzed Coupling of Alkynes: Evidence for Synergistic Cooperative Catalysis

Copper oxide supported on mesoporous manganese oxide (meso Cu/MnO,) was synthesized by an inverse micelle templated evaporation induced self-assembly procedure. Controlled aggregation of nanoparticles and a monomodal size distribution of mesopores with tunable structural properties were observed. The material possessed superior catalytic activity in the aerobic oxidative coupling of terminal alkynes. Excellent conversion (>99% in most cases) and selectivity were observed in both homocoupling and cross coupling of alkynes using the optimized reaction conditions. Use of air as the sole oxidant, avoidance of any kind of additives, ease of product separation, great functional group tolerability, wide synthetic scope, and superior reusability (up to eighth cycle) are the notable features of our catalytic protocol. While the reaction mechanism was elucidated, a synergistic cooperative effect between the copper and manganese has been established, which is responsible for the superior catalytic activity. The labile lattice oxygen of the meso Cu/MnOx played a vital role in deprotonation of the alkyne proton, as supported by TPD and TGA studies. Moreover, for the first time, we designed model complexes for the active sites of the catalyst by DFT calculations and provided a qualitative description of the coupling mechanism, which supports the experimental findings.