The preparation, characterization and catalytic activity of Ni NPs supported on porous alginate-g-poly(p-styrene sulfonamide-co-acrylamide)

Herein, we report the synthesis of nickel nanoparticles under mild conditions using porous alginate-g-poly(p-styrene sulfonamide-co-acrylamide) as a protecting/stabilizing agent and sodium borohydride as a reducing agent. The porous cross-linked polymeric support was prepared via combining the use of sol-gel, nanocasting, and crosslinking techniques, in which the p-styrene sulfonamide monomer (PSSA) and N,N '-methylene-bis (acrylamide) (MBA) cross-linker underwent copolymerization on the surface of sodium alginate in the presence of a SiO2 nanoparticle (NP) template (Alg-PSSA-co-ACA). The prepared catalyst (Alg-PSSA-co-ACA@Ni) showed high catalytic activity for the one-step synthesis of 1,3,4-oxadiazoles from the reaction of hydrazides and aryl iodides through isocyanide insertion/cyclization.