SBA-15-Supported Copper (II) Complex: An Efficient Heterogeneous Catalyst for Azide-Alkyne Cycloaddition in Water

he reaction of the functionalized mesoporous SBA-15 in absolute ethanol with copper(II) acetate afforded a novel CuII-Schiff base/SBA-15 catalyst. The compound CuII-Schiff base/SBA-15 was characterized by IR spectroscopy, small-angle X-ray diffraction (SAX), energy dispersive X-ray Analysis (EDXS), X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES), scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM) and N2 adsorption/desorption studies. Further, we tested the catalytic activity of this well-defined material in three-component copper-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) reactions to obtain 1,4-disubstituted-1,2,3-triazoles in good to excellent yields from an organic halide, sodium azide and alkyne in water as a green solvent. More importantly, the catalyst can be recovered and reused efficiently up to five consecutive cycles with negligible loss of catalytic activity.