Copper and nickel immobilized on cytosine@MCM-41: as highly efficient, reusable and organic-inorganic hybrid nanocatalysts for the homoselective synthesis of tetrazoles and pyranopyrazoles

In this work, a green approach is reported for efficient synthesis of biologically active tetrazole and pyranopyrazole derivatives in the presence of Cu-Cytosine@MCM-41 and Ni-Cytosine@MCM-41 (copper (II) and nickel (II) catalyst on the modified MCM-41 using cytosine). The synthesis of tetrazoles and pyranopyrazoles in the presence of these catalysts was performed in green solvents such as water or poly (ethylene glycol) (PEG). All products were obtained in high TOF (turnover frequency) numbers in the presence of these catalysts, which indicate the high efficiency of these catalysts in the synthesis of tetrazole and pyranopyrazole derivatives. The prepared catalysts were characterized by various techniques such as BET, TGA, XRD, FT-IR, SEM, EDS, WDX, TEM, and AAS. Mesoporous structure of these catalysts was confirmed by nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms. These catalysts can be recovered and reused for several runs without significant change in their catalytic activity or metal capacity. The recovered catalysts have been characterized by XRD, SEM, EDS, WDX, FT-IR and AAS techniques, by which their heterogeneous nature has been confirmed.