The review focuses on recent developments in the synthetic methodologies of COFs and their applications in the field of organocatalysis, electrocatalysis and photocatalysis. Future scope of COFs in the field are also described.

DUTTA, S.; SHARMA, S.; ZBORIL, R.; VARMA, R. S.; GAWANDE, M. B.; Green Chem. 18 (2016) 11, 3184-3209, http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/C6GC00864J ; Dep. Chem., Univ. Delhi, Delhi 110 007, India; Eng.) -S. Adam 30-262

SHARMA, S.; DUTTA, S.; ZBORIL, R.; GAWANDE, M. B.; Green Chem. 17 (2015) 6, 3207-3230, http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/C5GC00381D ; Dep. Chem., Univ. Delhi, Delhi 110 007, India; Eng.) -S. Adam 32-262

In view of their unique characteristics and properties, silver nanomaterials (Ag NMs) have been used not only in the field of nanomedicine but also for diverse advanced catalytic technologies.

The present work reports the fabrication of a novel and highly efficient silica nanospheres-based palladium catalyst (SiO2@APTES@Pd-FFR) via immobilization of a palladium complex onto silica nanospheres functionalized with 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES), and its catalytic application for the oxidative amination of aldehydes to yield commercially important amides. The structure of the nano-catalyst was confirmed by Solid-state (13)C CPMAS and (29)Si CPMAS NMR spectroscopy, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (ED-XRF), Atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and elemental analysis. The nano-catalyst was found to be highly effective for the oxidative amination of aldehydes using hydrogen peroxide as an environmentally benign oxidant to give amides. The effect of various reaction parameters such as temperature, amount of catalyst, reaction time, type of solvent, oxidant used, substrate to oxidant ratio etc. have been demonstrated to achieve high catalytic efficacy. Moreover, this nanostructured catalyst could be recovered with simplicity and reused for several cycles without any significant loss in its catalytic activity. In addition, the stability of the reused nano-catalyst was proved by FT-IR and HRTEM techniques. It is worth noting that the features of mild reaction conditions, simple work-up procedure, high product yield, no use of toxic organic solvents, high turn-over frequency (TOF), and easy recovery and reusability of the present quasi-homogeneous nano-catalyst make this protocol an attractive alternative to the existing catalytic methods for the oxidative amination of aldehydes to furnish industrially important amides.