Authors:

Abstract

A new, cost-effective, and green method has been developed to prepare Cu nanoparticles (Cu NPs) using Carthamus tinctorius aqueous extract as a non-toxic reducing/stabilizing agent without addition of any chemical-reducing agent or surfactants. In the next stage, the magnetic blend of lignin-chitosan was synthesized and used as an efficient support for the immobilization of Cu NPs (Cu [email protected]). The prepared Cu [email protected] was characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) analyses. The synthesized Cu [email protected] was used as an efficient and novel heterogeneous magnetic catalyst in the synthesis of 5-aryl-1H-tetrazole derivatives by the reaction of aryl nitriles and sodium azide in dimethylformamide (DMF) solvent. The synthesized nanocatalyst can be recycled and reused five times with no considerable loss of catalytic activity.Graphical abstract