Sonochemical synthesis of two new copper(II) complexes with azo ligands derived from anthranilic acid and β-naphtol

•Nanostructures of two coordination polymers have been synthesized by sonochemical process.•CuO nanostructures were synthesized from direct calcinations of new compounds.•Thermal stability of two coordination polymers was studied by thermal gravimetric.

Nanostructures of two new copper(II) complexes, (CuL1), 0.5EtOH. 1.5H2O (1), [H2L1 = 5-(4-Carboxy phenyl azo) anthranilic acid], (Cu(L2)2) (2), [HL2 = 1-(4-Carboxy phenyl azo) 2-naphtol] have been synthesized by the reaction of H2L1 and HL2 with Cu(OAc)2·H2O through sonochemical process. Calcination of the nano-sized compounds 1–2 yield CuO nanoparticles at 550–450 °C under air atmosphere. Metallic copper nanoparticles were prepared by direct calcination of compound 2 in surfactant at 180 °C. These nanostructures were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Thermal stability of compounds 1–2 was studied by thermal gravimetric (TG) and differential thermal analyses (DTA).