Synthesis, catalytic application and mechanistic studies of reusable polymer supported iron(III) complex towards efficient transfer hydrogenation of nitro compounds

This paper describes the synthesis, characterisation and catalytic transfer hydrogenation reaction of nitro compounds using HCOOH as hydrogen donor and functionalized chloromethylated polystyrene divinylbenzene supported iron complex as catalyst. It was characterized by various analytical techniques such as elemental analysis, ICP-OES, UV–VIS-DRS and FT-IR spectroscopic techniques, EDAX, and thermogravimetric analysis. This supported complex is an efficient catalyst for transfer hydrogenation reaction of aliphatic and aromatic nitro compounds which find application in the synthesis of fine chemicals, API’s and drugs. Interestingly this method has been proven to be tolerant to a broad range of functional groups with good to excellent yields and also established to be superior by exhibiting better catalytic activity and recyclability than the unsupported catalyst. The supported catalyst could be reused seven times without significant loss of catalytic activity. Density functional theory studies shreds light on the possible reaction pathways of transfer hydrogenation reaction catalyzed by Fe(III) system.