The Catalytic Reduction of Nitroanilines Using Synthesized CuFe₂ O₄ Nanoparticles in an Aqueous Medium

The primary objective of this research is to investigate the reduction of 4-nitroaniline (4-NA) and 2-nitroaniline (2-NA) using synthesized copper ferrite nanoparticles (NPs) via facile one-step hydrothermal method as a heterogeneous nano-catalyst. Nitroanilines were reduced in the presence and without the catalyst with a constant amount (100 mg) of reducing agent of sodium borohydride (NaBH₄ ) at room temperature in water to amino compounds. To characterize the functional groups, size, structure, and morphology of as-prepared magnetic NPs, FTIR, XRD, SEM, and TEM were employed. The UV-Vis spectrum was utilized to explore the catalytic effect of CuFe₂ O₄ . The outcomes revealed that the synthesized CuFe₂ O₄ as a heterogeneous magnetic nano-catalyst catalyzed the reduction of 4-NA and 2-NA significantly faster than other candidate catalysts. The outcomes demonstrated that the catalyst catalyzed 4-nitroaniline to para-phenylenediamine (p-PDA) and 2-nitroaniline to ortho-phenylenediamine (o-PDA) with a constant rate of 7.49×10^-2  s^-1 and 3.19×10^-2  s^-1 , and conversion percentage of 96.5 and 95.6, in 40 s and 90 s, sequentially. Furthermore, the nanoparticles could be recovered by a magnetic separation method and reused for six consecutive cycles without remarkable loss of catalytic ability.