CN-Doped Cobalt Oxide Composite: An Economic and Reusable Catalyst with Multitasking Catalytic Capability for Alkyne and Nitrile Hydrations and Nitro Reductions

A heterogeneous CoOCN composite, synthesized via a one-pot reaction of [Co(NO3)2] and urea at 500 °C in muffle furnace. The composite was fully characterized by the FTIR, Raman, powder XRD and XPS techniques. The catalyst was found to be efficient for the hydrations of aryl alkynes and nitriles under aerobic conditions. Apart of that, the catalyst exhibits high catalytic performance for the reduction of nitroarenes under the inert gas free conditions. This multitasking CoOCN was found to be highly significant for the all derivatives of nitrobenzene, alkynes and nitriles as good to excellent yields were obtained. The catalyst was recovered quantitatively from the reaction mixture by simple filtration and consequently reused for seven consecutive cycles in all reactions without significant loss of catalytic activity. Hence, the synthesized CN doped CoOCN composite worked as multitasking catalyst for various value added organic transformations, and it is highly economical and reusable upto seven catalytic cycles without any activation, even the last cycle was producing a reasonable yields up to 48-50%.