Simple formation of Humic acid- copper(II) acetate and magnetic nanoparticles were achieved from the reaction of respective iron (II) and iron (III) metal salts in water containing Humic acid as a support agent to achieve Fe3O4@HA and then stirred the Fe3O4@HA in water solution of Cu(OAc)2. It is believed that Humic acid plays a role of support to keep control of the particle's growth to generate nano-sized powders of magnetic nanoparticles and also has a lot of excellent functional groups to stabilize and disperse Cu on the surface.
Characterization of materials
Scanning electron microscope (FESEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM): The morphologies of Fe3O4@HA-Cu(OAc)2 are shown in FESEM images in Fig. 2.
It can be seen that copper acetate and magnetic nanoparticles have successfully been grown on the surface of the Humic acid. The Humic acid structure with hydroxyl groups can provide a higher absorber contact to promote the easier growth of copper acetate and magnetic nanoparticles on the surface. The copper acetate and magnetic nanoparticles were evenly coated on the humic acid, and the size and structure were relatively uniform. TEM analysis of the Humic acid-copper (II) acetate magnetic nanocomposite shows the spherical morphology of the material with a diameter of about 10–12 nm (Fig. 3).
X-ray diffraction (XRD)
The XRD spectra of the iron oxide (Fe3O4), magnetically humic acid (Fe3O4@HA), and ( Humic acid-copper acetate magnetic nanocomposite (Fe3O4@HA-Cu(OAc)2) are displayed in Fig. 4 shows the XRD pattern of synthesized Humic acid-copper acetate magnetic nanocomposite, which contains iron oxide (Fe3O4; JCPDS file 111-731) 25 (Fig. 4). Humic acid is affected by the broadening of diffraction peaks at 2Ɵ=10–20. X-ray diffraction pattern of pure Fe3O4 (Fe3O4; JCPDS file 019–0629) 26 has the highest peak at ~33°corresponding to the (104) plane, which is an indication of the formation of magnetite. The main diffraction peaks are located at 33°, 35°, 43°, 54°, 57°, and 63°, assigned to the magnetite peaks who having rhombohedral structure with R3c space group. According to our target which produces the recoverable copper (II), in the following, the copper (II) acetate magnetic nanocomposite properties, are investigated via EDX, and FTIR analysis.
Energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy and Atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS):
The EDX analysis confirms the presence of carbon, oxygen, iron, and copper (Fig. 5). The presence of the carbon and oxygen peaks refers to the basic structures of humic acid. The two peaks of iron and oxygen assert the fabrication of the magnetic nanoparticles. The quantitative results of copper (II) acetate magnetic nanocomposite are summarized in Table 1.
Table 1. The quantitative results of copper (II) acetate magnetic nanocomposite.
|
Elm
|
Line
|
W%
|
A%
|
C
|
Ka
|
20.33
|
41.29
|
O
|
Ka
|
24.35
|
37.13
|
Al
|
Ka
|
01.21
|
01.09
|
Au
|
Ka
|
09.14
|
01.13
|
Fe
|
Ka
|
39.63
|
17.31
|
Cu
|
Ka
|
05.33
|
02.05
|
Matrix
|
|
Correction
|
ZAF
|
Atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) was conducted to investigate the amount of Cu content supported on Fe3O4@HA-Cu(OAc)2. According to the AAS analysis, the loading amount of copper in Fe3O4@HA-Cu(OAc)2 was determined to be 1.88 mmol g−1. Thus, the synthesized nanoparticles have a high capacity to form chelates with the Cu species which could be attributed to the presence of a good functional group on humic acid. According to this the calculated turnover number of catalyst (TON) was 51.06 which is a high TON.
Vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) analysis
The VSM analysis shows the magnetic properties of magnetic humic acid and humic acid-copper acetate magnetic (Fe3O4) nanocomposite at room temperature (Fig. 6). It shows that not much has changed in saturation magnetization (magnetic humic acid: 0.17 emug-1, humic acid-copper acetate magnetic: 0.17 emug-1).
Fourier-transform infrared spectra (FTIR)
The FTIR spectroscopy is an important tool to show the structural characterization of the units of humic acid. As shown in Fig. 7 the spectra in region 3000–3700 cm-1 show the highest amount of hydroxyl groups available on the surface. The peaks at 1424 cm-1 and 1559 cm-1 are assigned to the carboxylic group and the peaks at 2856 cm-1 and 2923 cm-1 are assigned to the aliphatic C-H of humic acid. Besides, the peak at 572 cm-1 is assigned to Fe_O stretching vibration in the magnetic part and the peak at 448 cm-1 is assigned to copper acetate 27. This evidence confirms that humic acid copper acetate is completely supported by fe3O4.
Catalytic Activity of copper (II) acetate magnetic nanocomposite in click synthesis of 1, 2, 3-triazoles
After succeeding in preparing and characterizing nano magnetically Fe3O4@HA-Cu(OAc)2, it was applied to three component click synthesis of 1, 2, 3-triazoles to show catalytic potential and various catalyst loading, solvents, and temperatures was optimized for the model reaction of benzyl bromide, phenylacetylene, and sodium azide (Tables 2). The model reaction was carried out easily in the presence of 0.01 g of Fe3O4@HA-Cu(OAc)2 and the best conditions were selected when the reaction was performed in sole water at room temperature to yield the corresponding 1, 2, 3-triazole in 100% conversion (Table 2, entry 4) and 96% isolated yield (Table 3, entry 1). Besides, the reaction was performed in a shorter reaction time when the temperature increased to 50 ˚C and 70 ˚C (entries 11 and 12).
Table 2. The optimization results were obtained for the synthesis of 1-benzyl-1,2,3-triazole.
|
Entry
|
Catalyst
(g)
|
Solvent
(mL)
|
Temp.
(﮿C)
|
Time
(h)
|
Conversion
(%)`
|
1
|
0.01
|
H2O/EtOH 50%
(1)
|
10
|
24
|
100
|
2
|
0.01
|
EtOH
(1)
|
10
|
12
|
80
|
3
|
0.01
|
H2O
(1)
|
10
|
10
|
100
|
4
|
0.01
|
H2O
(1)
|
25
|
1.7
|
100
|
5
|
0.01
|
EtOH
(1)
|
25
|
2.24
|
80
|
6
|
0.01
|
Acetonitrile
(1)
|
25
|
12
|
100
|
7
|
0.01
|
H2O/EtOH 50%
(1)
|
25
|
2
|
100
|
8
|
0.01
|
PEG 200
(1)
|
25
|
24
|
90
|
9
|
0.008
|
H2O
(1)
|
25
|
2.15
|
100
|
10
|
0.005
|
H2O
(1)
|
25
|
2.5
|
100
|
11
|
0.01
|
H2O
(1)
|
50
|
1
|
100
|
12
|
0.01
|
H2O
(1)
|
70
|
0.7
|
100
|
13
|
0.01
|
H2O
(1.5)
|
25
|
2.15
|
100
|
14
|
0.01
|
H2O
(0.5)
|
25
|
2.45
|
100
|
The high catalytic activity, stability, and reusability of copper (II) acetate magnetic nanocomposite in water allow us to extend the model reaction to synthesize a series of 1,2,3-triazole derivatives (Table 3). Aromatic alkynes in comparison to the aliphatic one show higher activity due to the stable complex with copper (II). On the other hand, to show the wide catalytic activity of copper (II) acetate magnetic nanocomposite, it was also investigated in the β-hydro-1H-1,2,3-triazole synthesis reaction. In all cases, after consuming the limited alkyl halide or epoxide, ethanol was added to the reaction mixture to solve the corresponding product and separated the catalyst by an external magnet. The pure corresponding product was achieved after reducing the solvent a recrystallization in water in good to excellent yield.
Comparison study of catalytic Activity
To comprehend the efficacy and potency of Fe3O4@HA-Cu(OAc)2 nanocomposite, the present catalytic system was compared with several previously reported methods for the synthesis of 1-benzyl-1,2,3-triazole. The copper (II) acetate magnetic nanocomposite catalyst exhibits high catalytic activity as compared to other reports, which is attributed to the availability of more active and stable copper (II) stabilized with hydroxyl groups on humic acid (Table 4). Moreover, the reusability of copper (II) acetate magnetic nanocomposite is found to be significantly easier as compared to some other copper (II) and copper (I)-based catalytic systems that separated with an external magnet easily from the reaction mixture.
Table 4. Comparison study of the catalytic activity of different copper catalysts for the synthesis of 1,2,3-triazole.
|
Catalyst
|
Solvent
|
Temp
(﮿C)
|
Time
(h)
|
Yield
(%)
|
CuI [copper(I) iodide] 10
|
Toluene
|
110
|
72
|
67
|
Cu0/Fe3O4 7
|
DMSO
|
80
|
0.5
|
62-96
|
Ag2SO4 17
|
DMF
|
70
|
0.67
|
76
|
I2 6
|
DMSO
|
100
|
12
|
86
|
Cu (OTf)2 13
|
DMF/AcOH
(4:1)
|
110
|
14
|
96
|
CuFe2O4 9
|
H2O
|
70
|
6
|
87
|
CuO 11
|
THF/H2O
(24:1)
|
60
|
24
|
96
|
Fe3O4@TiO2/
Cu2O 12
|
H2O
|
100
|
0.3
|
89
|
Cu-Apatite 8
|
H2O
|
100
|
1.5
|
99
|
This study
|
H2O
|
Room temperature
|
1.7
|
96
|