Green synthesis of copper nanoparticles using Ginkgo biloba L. leaf extract and their catalytic activity for the Huisgen [3+2] cycloaddition of azides and alkynes at room temperature.

During this study, we report the green synthesis of copper nanoparticles (Cu NPs) using Ginkgo biloba L. leaf extract as a reducing and stabilizing agent under surfactant-free conditions. The formation of Cu NPs is monitored by recording the UV-vis absorption spectra. The green synthesized Cu NPs are characterized by TEM, EDS, FT-IR and UV-visible techniques. According to UV-vis results, the synthesized Cu NPs by this method are quite stable even after one month indicating the stability of Cu NPs. In terms of environmental impact and economy, metallic Cu NPs offer several advantages over homogeneous and traditional heterogeneous catalysts. In addition, due to the increased metal surface area, Cu NPs shows very high catalytic activity for the Huisgen [3+2] cycloaddition of azides and alkynes at room temperature. Furthermore, the catalyst can be simply recovered and reused several times with almost no loss in activity.