Highly Active and Efficient Cu@SiO2 Catalyst: Enabled Nucleophilic and Electrophilic Activation of Active Methylene Compounds

Abstract The utility of copper is strikingly afforded due to the variable oxidation state being widely used in various organic reactions. The copper‐catalyzed C−C bond formation with active methylene compounds are a straightforward approach with widespread uses in synthetic organic chemistry. A significantly lower amount of Cu‐supported SiO 2 catalyst was synthesized through sol‐gel method. The microscopy analysis reveals the formation of spherical morphology and the uniform distribution of Cu nanoparticles of 2.5 nm size. Furthermore, copper was found in Cu +2 state by XPS analysis. The NH 3 ‐TPD analysis estimated the 0.092 mmol/g acidic sites. The synthesized multifunctional catalyst was used for gabapentin intermediates through a series of active methylene compounds through tandem organic reactions. The catalyst gave excellent conversion (99%) and selectivity (99%) of the desired product. The catalyst was found to be highly stable and recycled for six cycles without losing any activity and selectivity to the reaction product.