Synthesis and characterization of a Ni nanoparticle stabilized on Ionic liquid-functionalized magnetic Silica nanoparticles for tandem oxidative reaction of primary alcohols

In this research, preparation of the magnetic nanoparticle, coating by a silica shell using (3-aminopropyl) triethoxysilane and synthesis of a novel sulfonic acid-substituted imidazolium-based ionic liquid onto the surface of these particles via a multi-component reaction, is described. The functionalized nanoparticles was loaded by Ni nanoparticles and characterized by means of techniques such as XRD, FTIR, SEM, EDX, TEM, TGA and ICP-OES. The nanostructures have spherical shapes that ranged in size from 80 to 100 nm. The catalytic activity of these nanoparticles was tested in aerobic oxidation of primary alcohols that showed good performance in the wide range of primary alcohols in water at mild reaction conditions. As a second step of this work, the tandem oxidative synthesis of alkylacrylonitriles and bisindolylmethanes were investigated using primary alcohols under oxidation conditions. This catalyst system can be recovered using external magnet and reused for five consecutive cycles without significantly less of its activity.