Cu(II)‐Amino Acid Ionic Liquid Surfactants: Metallovesicles as Nano‐Catalytic Reactors for Cross Dehydrogenative Coupling Reaction in Water

Abstract Utilization of the water as a reaction medium is very challenging due to the organic molecules insolubility in the aqueous medium. Still, self‐assembled structures like micelles and vesicles can act as nanoreactors to perform the organic reactions in water. In our efforts to achieve a chemical reaction in water, we have synthesized sustainable Cu (II) based amino acid (phenylalanine or valine) ionic liquid surfactants [AAC 12 ] 2 [CuCl 4 ], constructed their metallovesicles, and utilized these as nano‐catalytic reactors for C−C bond formation in the propargyl amines under the oxidative conditions. Aggregation of [AAC 12 ] 2 [CuCl 4 ] in an aqueous medium was studied using surface tension, pyrene fluorescence, and specific conductivity measurements. TEM and DLS analysis confirmed the formation of metallovesicles. [AAC 12 ] 2 [CuCl 4 ] metallovesicles acted as multitasking nanoreactors to provide a bio‐based template, water as a solvent, no additional catalyst to perform the reaction, and high yield (up to 94 % in low Cu(II) 0.012 mol%). Furthermore, The retention in the chirality of amino acid is observed in [AAC 12 ] 2 [CuCl 4 ], which can be a promising approach for one‐pot synthesis of chiral moieties in a greener way for future pharmaceutical manufacturing and other Cu(II) catalyzed reactions.