Decarboxylative fluorination of aliphatic carboxylic acids under heterogeneous delafossite AgFeO 2 nanoparticle catalysis: The utilization of bimetallic cooperativity

Abstract A crystalline delafossite of silver ferrite AgFeO 2 nanoparticles were successfully synthesized by modified method. Physical characterizations of the AgFeO 2 catalyst were obtained by several techniques including X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray Fluorescence (XRF), and nitrogen physisorption measurements. The material was applied as active heterogeneous catalyst for decarboxylative fluorination of carboxylic acids. The optimized conditions utilized the electrophilic Selectfluor reagent in acetone/H 2 O solvent at room temperature in 3 h. Investigation of structure/activity relationship revealed strong synergistic effect of iron on silver center. Subsequently, AgFeO 2 showed remarkable higher activity than homogeneous silver salts, other metal oxides and common Ag-based heterogeneous catalysts. Leaching test indicated the exceptional stability of AgFeO 2 structure as compared to other heterogeneous systems and the contribution of leached species is unlikely. Subsequently, AgFeO 2 could be reused for at least 7 runs without significant degradation in activity.