Water-assisted electrochemical fabrication of Cu/Cu2O nanoparticles in protic ionic liquid and their catalytic activity in the synthesis of quinazolinones

The present study reports a simple protocol involving Cu/Cu2O nanoparticles synthesis via electrochemical deposition process in 1-methylpiperidinium trifluoromethane sulphonate [HmPip][OTf] protic ionic liquid. The phase and morphology of the prepared nanoparticles were examined using different characterization techniques such as XRD, XPS, FEG-SEM, TEM, EDX, and FT-IR. A highly efficient, ligand-free method was developed to synthesize quinazolinones from substituted 2-halobenzoic acids with amidines via microwave-assisted Cu/Cu2O nano-catalyst in ethylene glycol as a green solvent. Up to five cycles Cu/Cu2O nanoparticles show good recyclability without loss in its activity. [GRAPHICS] .