A diselenobis-functionalized magnetic catalyst based on iron oxide/silica nanoparticles suggested for amidation reactions.

In this study, a new heterogeneous magnetic catalytic system based on selenium-functionalized iron oxide nanoparticles is presented and suggested for facilitating amide/peptide bonds formation. The prepared nanocatalyst, entitled as "Fe3O4/SiO2-DSBA" (DSBA stands for 2,2'-diselanediylbis benzamide), has been precisely characterized for identifying its physicochemical properties. As the most brilliant point, the catalytic performance of the designed system can be mentioned, where only a small amount of Fe3O4/SiO2-DSBA (0.25 mol%) has resulted in 89% reaction yield, under a mild condition. Also, given high importance of green chemistry, convenient catalyst particles separation from the reaction medium through its paramagnetic property (ca. 30 emu·g-1) should be noticed. This particular property provided a substantial opportunity to recover the catalyst particles and successfully reuse them for at least three successive times. Moreover, due to showing other excellences, such as economic benefits and nontoxicity, the presented catalytic system is recommended to be scaled up and exploited in the industrial applications.