High catalytic activity of a new Ag phosphorus ylide complex supported on montmorillonite: synthesis,characterization, and application for room temperature nitro reduction

In this work, the phosphorus ylide, [PPh₃CHC(O)CH₂Cl], was reacted with AgNO₃ to give the [Ag{C(H)PPh₃C(O)CH₂Cl}₂]⁺NO₃ ^? as the product. Then, it was supported on the modified montmorillonite nanoclay to prepare a new catalyst for the reduction reaction. The structure and morphology of the nanoclay catalyst were characterized by FT-IR, X-ray powder diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray analysis and transmission electron microscopy techniques; also, the content of silver was obtained by inductively coupled plasma analyzer. This composition was exploited to study its catalytic activity in the reduction in aromatic nitro compounds; it displayed the high catalytic activity. Factors such as catalyst amount, solvent, temperature and reaction time were all systematically investigated to elucidate their effects on the yield of catalytic reduction in nitroarenes. This catalytic system exhibited high activity toward aromatic nitro compounds under mild conditions. The catalyst was reused five times without any significant loss in its catalytic activity.