A synthesis of copper based metal-organic framework for O-acetylation of alcohols

•O-acetylation of alcohols by copper based MOF under solvent-free conditions.•The catalyst was prepared from inexpensive precursors, which is also recycled for several runs.•A variety of alcohols gives good yields of the corresponding products (70-93%).

A novel metal-organic framework, Cu–BDC was synthesized by static hydrothermal method using innocuous solvents and characterized by several techniques such as powder XRD, ESR, TG–DTA, elemental analysis, ICP-AES, SEM, EDXS, FT-IR, BET surface area, pore volume and pore size. The catalytic performance of Cu–BDC was explored for O-acetylation of alcohols under solvent-free conditions at room temperature. The catalyst exhibited remarkable activity and reusability affording the desired products in excellent yields.