Eco-Friendly Conversion of p-Nitrophenol into p-Aminophenol Using Calix[4]arene Derived CuO Nanoparticles: An Excellent Catalytic Agent

p-Aminophenol is an important organic molecule which is widely used in pharmaceutical as well as in dye industries for the synthesis of various drugs and corrosion resistant paints respectively. In order to synthesize this important organic molecule, CuO nanoparticles were functionalized with diamide derivative of calix[4] arene (3). The functionalized nanoparticles (4) were characterized with different analytical techniques such as FT-IR, XRD, SEM and EDX. The synthesized catalyst (4) was used to convert p-nitrophenol,in presence of sodium borohydride, into p-aminophenol which is an industrially important organic molecule. This reaction was monitored by Ultraviolet visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy. The catalytic conversion took 35-40 seconds. The reaction followed pseudo first order kinetics and rate constant was determined as 1.386 min−1. N