Immobilization of Porphyrinatocopper Nanoparticles onto Activated Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes and a Study of its Catalytic Activity as an Efficient Heterogeneous Catalyst for a Click Approach to the Three-Component Synthesis of 1,2,3-Triazoles in Water

An efficient, regioselective, one-pot and two-step synthesis of beta-hydroxy 1,4-disubstituted 1,2,3-triazoles from a wide range of non-activated terminal alkynes and epoxides and sodium azide by way of a three-component click reaction using a catalytic amount of [meso-tetrakis(o-chlorophenyl)porphyrinato]copper(II) (5 mol%) in excellent isolated yields is described. The reactions were performed in water as a green solvent at ambient temperature without any additives. By performing two reaction steps in one pot and purifying only at the final step, this procedure excludes any interim purification of in situ generated organic azide intermediates, which significantly improves the overall yield and reduces the reaction time. To benefit from the recovery and reuse of the catalyst, a new heterogeneous catalyst was prepared by simple and successful impregnation of the catalyst onto activated multi-walled carbon nanotubes (AMWCNT). The heterogeneous catalyst was characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic forced microscopy (AFM), and thermogravimetric (TG) analysis to estimate the amount of nitrogen adsorption, and Raman and FT-IR spectroscopy. Leaching experiments after ten successive cycles showed that the catalyst is most strongly anchored to the AMWCNT support. Mechanistically, porphyrinato-copper catalyzes each step of the reaction in different ways as a bifunctional catalyst including epoxide ring opening by azide delivery to epoxide, forming in situ generated 2-azido alcohols followed by activation of the C C triple bond of the starting terminal alkynes by forming a porphyrinatocopper-acetylide intermediate and thereby promoting the [3+2]-cycloaddition reaction as the key step to form the triazole framework.