KIT-6-anchored sulfonic acid groups as a heterogeneous solid acid catalyst for the synthesis of aryl tetrazoles

In the current study, a simple, environmentally benign and cost-effective method is presented for the preparation of 5-substituted-1H-aryltetrazoles. To this goal, mesoporous KIT-6 silica anchored with sulfonic acid (–SO3H) groups via post-grafting modification was synthesized using the sol–gel method and characterized by XRD, TGA, FTIR, BET, TEM and SEM techniques. For the preparation of tetrazole derivatives, the effect of various parameters such as catalyst amount, aryl nitrile:azide ratio, temperature and reaction time was tested. The hybrid organic/inorganic catalyst could be recovered easily through a simple filtration and reused multiple times without significant loss in activity.