Synthesis, Spectroscopy Study of Copper (II) Sulphate Pentahydrate, Tetra-Amminocopper (II) Sulphate and Bis-Ethylenediamine Copper (II) Sulphate in the Catalytic Reduction of Nitrophenol Derivatives

The copper complex of the type; copper (II) sulphate pentahydrate, tetra-amminocopper (II) sulphate, and bis-ethylenediamine copper (II) sulphatecomplexes was synthesized and structurally characterized using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR). The test of the catalytic performance of the complexes were carried out in the reduction of 2-methyl-4-nitrophenol to 2-methyl-4-aminophenol using sodium borohydrate as reducing agent which reduce nitrophenol to nitrophenolate ion using 0.5 mg, 1 mg and 1.5 mg dose of catalyst. The result obtained shows that bis-ethylenediamine copper (II) sulphate has the highest performance with 65.3% followed by tetra-amminocopper (II) sulphate with 50.4% then copper (II) sulphate pentahydrate with 34.6%.The catalyst's recyclability and reproducibility activities revealed that the complexes are fairly effective as catalyst. Keywords— Catalytic reduction, Derivatives of 4-Nitrophenol, Copper complexes.