Superparamagnetic Copper Ferrite Nanoparticles as an Efficient Heterogeneous Catalyst for the α-Arylation of 1,3-Diketones with C-C Cleavage

Superparamagnetic CuFe2O4 nanoparticles were synthesized from CuCl2 and FeCl3 by a co-precipitation method in ethylene glycol and characterized by several techniques, which included vibrating sample magnetometry, XRD, SEM, TEM, atomic absorption spectrometry, and nitrogen physisorption measurements. The CuFe2O4 nanoparticles could be used as a solid catalyst for the -arylation reaction of acetylacetone with iodobenzene to form phenylacetone as the principal product and 3-phenyl-2,4-pentanedione as the byproduct. The reaction that used the CuFe2O4 nanoparticles as catalyst could proceed to completion with 95% selectivity to phenylacetone. The CuFe2O4 nanoparticles could be separated easily from the reaction mixture by magnetic decantation and could be reused several times for the -arylation reaction without a significant degradation in catalytic activity.