Copper(II) nanodots stabilized on galactomannan: preparation and catalytic application towards fast solvent-free Biginelli reactions.

New Cu(II) nanodots have been developed using biopolymeric polysaccharide galactomannan. The nanocatalyst Cu(II)NDs@CFG has been developed through a one-step clean and sustainable reaction of galactomannan and CuSO·5HO in an aqueous medium. The catalyst Cu(II)NDs@CFG is well characterized by FT-IR, FE-SEM, EDS, ICP-MS, HR-TEM, XPS, XRD, TGA and BET analysis. This is the first example of preparing copper nanodots by using polysaccharide galactomannan as a supporting template to form copper nanodots in water. Moreover, the copper nanodots act as a potential nanocatalyst for multicomponent Biginelli reactions. A simple, one pot, efficient and environmentally benign synthesis of 3,4-dihydropyrimidin-2(1)-ones/thiones has been achieved with wide variety of aldehydes, β-dicarbonyl compounds and urea or thiourea indicating the good tolerance of the catalyst towards various functionalities. The presented work has several merits in terms of economy which include easy operation, complete avoidance of toxic organic solvents and expensive catalysts, simple work-up, less reaction time, and excellent yields.