effective acetylation of hydroxyl compound with ruiii(otf)2 salen modified sio2–fe3o4 magnetically recycling catalyst

This study presents the successful synthesis of ru(otf)2 on amino-functionalized schiff base sio2@fe3o4, which serves as a rapid and effective catalyst for the acetylation of primary alcohols. notably, the catalyst demonstrates selectivity by preventing the acetylation of secondary and tertiary alcohols, as well as phenols, when used with acetic anhydride. the characterization of the fe3o4@sio2/schiff-base/ru(iii) magnetic nanoparticles (mnps) was conducted using various analytical techniques, including fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ft-ir), uv-visible spectroscopy (uv-vis), x-ray diffraction (xrd), scanning electron microscopy (sem), energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (edx), and vibrating sample magnetometry (vsm). remarkably, the catalyst, at a concentration of 0.1 mmol, exhibited excellent acetylation activity with acetic anhydride in a significantly reduced time frame. the acetylation of phenols also yielded the desired acetates with efficiencies ranging from 87% to 93% in 3 to 9 minutes. importantly, this catalyst can be reused multiple times without a loss of catalytic activity, and its straightforward recovery and reusability align well with the principles of green chemistry.