Copper nanoparticles as catalyst is gaining immense interest due to their catalytic properties for a variety of organic reactions. However, metal-nanoparticle catalysts are still having limited uses, because of the problem associated with their separation from the products by traditional methods [1,2]. One of the currently adopted strategies is the immobilization of metal nanoparticles on solid supports, such as inorganic materials [3,4]. Among different supports, SBA-15 has been extensively applied as a heterogeneous support for the immobilization of homogeneous catalysts. Because, SBA-15 is useable at high temperatures due to its thermal stability. Moreover, SBA-15 has a large specific surface areathe large specific, high pore volume which allows supporting of huge organic ligands and metal complexes into its channels. In this study, a new nanocatalyst was prepared by the immobilization of Cu complex of 2-hydroxybenzonitrile as ligand on ordered mesoporous silica (SBA-15). The proposed catalyst (SBA-15@HBN-Cu) was characterized by FT-IR, XRD, BET, TGA, EDX, and SEM and was successfully applied in the synthesis of pyranopyrazole derivatives. Pyranopyrazoles exhibit significant biological properties such as anticancer, antimicrobial, antiinflammatory and antiviral [5, 6]. These catalysts can be recovered and reused for several runs without significant change in their catalytic activity or copper leaching.
