A Novel and Efficient Nano Alumina Based Cu (II) Catalyst for Three-
Component Synthesis of 5-Substituted-1H-Tetrazoles
Authors: Khoshnoud Amin , Pourali Ali Reza , Behniafar Hossein 
Published: February 2021

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Tetrazoles as one of the most important synthetic heterocyclic compounds have so many applications in organic
chemistry, the photographic industry, coordination chemistry, explosives and in particular, medicinal chemistry. Numerous methods have been reported in the literature for synthesis of tetrazoles, but much of them have some drawbacks including the use of strong Lewis acids or expensive and toxic metals and employment of acidic media. Azides may react
with acids to yield toxic and flammable HN3 gas. Furthermore, many methods used high polar solvents such as DMF at
high temperatures and very tedious work-up. Heterogeneous catalysts are preferred because of owing to easy handling,
safety, recoverability and reusability. Catalyst separation and recycling is highly desirable because catalysts are often very
expensive. On the other hand, in spite of higher reactivity and selectivity of homogeneous catalysts, the difficulty of separating them from the reaction medium can lead to the problem of reusing the catalyst. Also, most homogeneous catalysts
are thermally unstable. To benefit advantages of both types of catalysts, one solution is using nanoparticles. Their higher
surface area is the advantages of nanoparticles, which allows them to enhance the reaction rate. Many commercially important catalysts include active nanoparticles spread on high area oxide supports. Such catalysts are highly complex materials that are optimized to work for plenty of turnovers at high reaction rates and with high selectivity.
Aldehyde (1 mmol), hydroxylamine hydrochloride (0.10 mg, 1.5 mmol), sodium azide (0.10 g, 1.5 mmol), distilled water
(5 mL) and nano Al2O3@PCH-Cu (II) (0.01g, 1.04% mol) were added to round bottom flask (25 mL) and stirred at room
temperature. After the completion of the reaction, water (10 mL) was added into reaction mixture and filtered. Excess sodium azide and hydroxylamine hydrochloride are dissolved in water and the catalyst remains on the filter. Extraction of
product with diethyl ether (3×10 mL) and then evaporation of ether afforded the product. The product was recrystallized
using hot ethanol to obtain pure product.
We synthesized a novel, stable, highly reactive and efficient nano-sized heterogeneous catalyst (nano Al2O3@PCH-Cu
(II)). We characterized it by FT-IR, ICP, SEM, TGA and EDX analysis. This catalyst was used for the efficient one-pot
three-component synthesis of 5-substituted-1H-tetrazoles. An one-pot three-component synthesis of 5-substituted-1Htetrazoles is conducted, a reaction between various benzaldehydes, hydroxyl amine hydrochloride and sodium azide in the
presence of a novel and highly efficient nano alumina supported poly(carboxylic acid hydrazide) Cu(II) complex, nano
Al2O3@PCH-Cu(II), as heterogeneous catalyst in H2O at room temperature. This method has very mild reaction conditions as well as the advantages of easy separation and reusability of the catalyst, very short reaction times, high yields and using H2O as green solvent. Furthermore, using this method very high TON and TOF values obtained for all isolated
products.