Nano Alumina Catalytic Applications in Organic Transformations

Alumina (Aluminium Oxide, Al2O3), a white odorless solid powder is an inexpensive and widely used inorganic material which is insoluble in water and organic solvents. It may also be called aloxide, aloxite, or alundum. Nano forms of this inorganic metal oxide could be seen in different crystalline polymorphic phases for alumina, such as α-Al2O3, β-Al2O3, γ-Al2O3, δ-Al2O3, θ-Al2O3, η-Al2O3, κ-Al2O3, χ-Al2O3, and ρ-Al2O3. Generally, the nano size of alumina showed better activity due to its common form because of the vast surface area which led to larger surface-to-volume ratio. Alumina is a versatile substance in many compounds which possess interesting utility in biology, industry, and drugs. Nano alumina have been utilized in different branches of industry, medicine, and biology. It could play key role in abrasives, ceramics, and dental composites, electronic, absorbent, nano-carriers for delivery of anticancer, and surgical implants. Besides, it possesses particular position, as a heterogeneous Lewis acid catalyst or catalyst support in chemistry. Due to interesting properties of nano alumina in this report we focused on its catalytic activity in organic transformations. The review subdivided with centralization on reactions that progressed with sole nano alumina and the reactions which improved by nano alumina support catalysts. In is noteworthy that although many reactions have been reported by alumina catalytic role, the ones which underwent by nano-size aluminum oxides are few. This fact denote that this substance is a potent-catalyst system in future organic chemistry domain. The review describes the various organic reactions promoted by nano alumina catalysts relevant up to 2017.