Magnetite nanoparticles coated with ruthenium via SePh layer as a magnetically retrievable catalyst for the selective synthesis of primary amides in an aqueous medium

The nanostructured magnetic oxide Fe3O4 has been coated with silica and then reacted with phenylselenyl chloride under a N-2 atmosphere and RuCl3 center dot xH(2)O successively in an aqueous medium to prepare Fe3O4@SiO2@SePh@Ru(OH)(x) nanoparticles (NPs) for the first time. These magnetically retrievable NPs have been authenticated using TEM, SEM-EDX and powder-XRD and found to be an efficient catalyst for one pot conversion (organic solvent not required) of aldehydes, nitrites and benzyt amine to primary amides in water. For aldehydes and nitrites, the yields of primary amides are up to 93%. These NPs can be recycled more than 7 times for the conversion of benzonitrite to the corresponding amide. Gram-scale transformation carried out by using Fe3O4@SiO2@SePh@Ru(OH)(x) NPs as a catalyst gives similar to 86% yield.