A new Cu-anchored mesoporous organosilica material for facile C-S coupling reactions under microwave irradiation

We report a new ordered Cu-anchored 2D-hexagonal mesoporous imine functionalized organosilica material Cu-MPIOS. This Cu-anchored mesoporous material has been synthesized via post synthetic functionalization of SBA-15 with 3-(2-aminoethylamino)propyl-dimethoxymethylsilane followed by Schiff-base condensation with 2-thiophene carboxaldehyde. Cu(I) has been grafted finally over Schiff base functionalized mesoporous material through chemical impregnation to obtain Cu-MPIOS. The materials are characterized thoroughly using various techniques like powder X-ray diffraction, N-2 adsorption/desorption analysis, FTIR, UV-vis spectroscopy, FEG-TEM, FE-SEM, C-13 cross-polarization magic angle spinning NMR, TGA/DTA, EPR, AAS and CHN chemical analysis. High Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area and the presence of very large size mesopores (8.1 nm) in Cu-MPIOS has motivated us to explore its catalytic activity in one-pot three-component C-S cross coupling reaction by varying different aryl halides in the aqueous medium under microwave assisted heating conditions. This heterogeneous Cu-catalyst shows high catalytic performance as well as good recycling efficiency in this C-S coupling reaction, suggesting its future potential for the synthesis of value added thioether derivatives. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.