Synthesis and characterization of CuO/ZnO/Al2O3 particles and its utilization as a catalyst for acrylamide derivatives

Abstract

Abstract During the study, a novel CuO/ZnO/Al2O3 glass-ceramic was prepared via an ordinary melt annealing route. Synthesized catalyst was then characterized via Fourier Transform Spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-Ray Diffractometer (XRD), Scanning Electronic Microscopy (SEM) supported with Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDAX) and X-ray mapping. The synthesized catalyst was then applied for Knoevenagel-type reaction via efficient one-pot multicomponent reaction of 2-cyano-p-methoxyacetanilide and p-nitrobenzaldehyde in the presence of CuO/ZnO/Al2O3 catalyst under solvent-free condition. The produced acetanilide derivative was found to be suitably synthesized with excellent yields in the presence of CuO/ZnO/Al2O3 catalyst compared with that previously synthesized using piperidine. The final product was also confirmed using an energy gap calculated from HUMO-LUMO via density functional theory (DFT).