Silver nanoparticles embedded over mesoporous organic polymer as highly efficient and reusable nanocatalyst for the reduction of nitroarenes and aerobic oxidative esterification of alcohols

• First synthesis of silver nanoparticles embedded in mesoporous poly-triallylamine (Ag-MPTA-1).
• Ag-MPTA-1 nanocatalyst showed excellent catalytic activity in the reduction of nitrobenzenes via transfer hydrogenation.
• Ag-MPTA-1 also showed very good activity in the aerobic oxidative esterification of alcohols in the presence of O2.
• The Ag-MPTA-1 nanocatalyst has been recycled up to five times without diminishing of catalytic activity.

Silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) have been finely dispersed at the mesoporous organic polymer via post-synthetic chemical grafting over mesoporous poly-triallylamine (MPTA-1). The resulting Ag-MPTA-1 nanomaterial has been characterized by elemental analysis, powder x-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), EPR spectroscopy and AAS elemental analysis. The Ag-MPTA-1 acts as an efficient heterogeneous nanocatalyst in the reduction of substituted nitrobenzenes via transfer hydrogenation. The material also showed excellent catalytic activity in one-step catalytic oxidative esterification of primary alcohols using molecular oxygen as a green oxidant. The catalyst is air-stable, inexpensive, easy to prepare and reused several times without significant decrease in activity and selectivity.

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