Iron oxalate capped iron–copper nanomaterial for oxidative transformation of aldehydes

Abstract

An efficient, sustainable and green procedure for the synthesis of selective orthorhombic iron(oxalate) capped Fe–Cu bimetallic oxide nanomaterial [Fe(ox)Fe–CuOx] was developed using a sodium borohydride reduction of iron(II) salt in the presence of oxalic acid at room temperature followed by addition of copper sulfate in water. The reported method is a cost-effective chemical route for producing [Fe(ox)Fe–CuOx] nano material at the gram level with a surface area of 78.4 m² g⁻¹ and a pore volume of 0.141 cm³ g⁻¹. The [Fe(ox)Fe–CuOx] nanomaterials were found to be useful as a recoverable catalyst for the oxidative transformation of an aldehyde to its corresponding ester and acid in presence of hydrogen peroxide.