Copper oxide nanoparticles as a mild and efficient catalyst for N-arylation of imidazole and aniline with boronic acids at room temperature

The present work describes the excellent catalytic activity of copper(II) oxide nanoparticles (NPs) towards N-arylation of aniline and imidazole at room temperature. The copper(II)oxide NPs were synthesized by a thermal refluxing technique and characterized by FT-IR spectroscopy; powder XRD, SEM, EDX, TEM, TGA, XPS, BET surface area analysis, and particle size analysis. The size of the NPs was found to be around 12 nm having a surface area of 164.180 m2 g–1.The catalytic system was also found to be recyclable and could be reused in subsequent catalytic runs without a significant loss of activity.