Biguanide-Functionalized Fe3O4/SiO2 Magnetic Nanoparticles: An Efficient Heterogeneous Organosuperbase Catalyst for Various Organic Transformations in Aqueous Media

A novel biguanide-functionalized Fe3O4/SiO2 magnetite nanoparticle with a core-shell structure was developed for utilization as a heterogeneous organosuperbase in chemical transformations. The structural, surface, and magnetic characteristics of the nanosized catalyst were investigated by various techniques such as transmission electron microscopy (TEM), powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM), elemental analyzer (EA), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), N-2 adsorption-desorption (BET and BJH) and FT-IR. The biguanide-functionalized Fe3O4/SiO2 nanoparticles showed a superpara-magnetic property with a saturation magnetization value of 46.7 emu/g, indicating great potential for application in magnetically separation technologies. In application point of view, the prepared catalyst was found to act as an efficient recoverable nanocatalyst in nitroaldol and domino Knoevenagel condensation/Michael addition/cyclization reactions in aqueous media under mild condition. Additionally, the catalyst was reused six times without significant degradation in catalytic activity and performance.