Sulfonic acid-functionalized silica-coated magnetic nanoparticles as an efficient reusable catalyst for the synthesis of 1-substituted 1H-tetrazoles under solvent-free conditions

Regarding green chemistry goals, silica-coated magnetite nanoparticles open up a new avenue to introduce a very useful and efficient system for facilitating catalyst recovery in different organic reactions. Therefore, in this paper the preparation of sulfonic acid-functionalized silica-coated magnetic nanoparticles with core-shell structure (Fe3O4@silica sulfonic acid) is presented by using Fe3O4 spheres as the core and silica sulfonic acid nanoparticles as the shell. The catalyst was characterized by infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction analysis, dynamic light scattering, thermogravimetric analysis and vibrating sample magnetometry. Nanocatalyst can be recovered using an external magnet and reused for subsequent reactions 6 times without noticeable deterioration in catalytic activity.