Catalytic performance of copper(II) Schiff base complex immobilized on Fe3O4 nanoparticles in synthesis of 2-amino-4H-benzo[h] chromenes and reduction of 4-nitrophenol

•Efficient synthesis of Fe3O4@SiO2CPS-CuL nanocomposites.•Characterization of the nanocomplex using FT-IR, TG-DTG, SEM, FT-IR, VSM, EDS and XRD.•The preparation of 2-amino-4Hbenzo[h]chromenes through one-pot multicomponent reactions and efficient reduction of 4-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol.in water using Fe3O4@SiO2CPS-CuL nanocomposites.•Nanocomposites can be recovered and reused several times by magnetic separation without any considerable changes in the catalytic activity. A copper(II) Schiff base complex immobilized on the surface of Fe3O4 nanoparticles with a coating of silica shell (Fe3O4@SiO2CPS-CuL) have been synthesized as an effective nanocatalyst. The as‐synthesized Fe3O4@SiO2CPS-CuL and its precursors were well characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), inductively coupled plasma (ICP), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy‐dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy (EDX), vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM), and powder X‐ray diffraction (XRD). As a next step, the synthesized nanocatalyst was utilized for the preparation of 2-amino-4Hbenzo[h]chromenes through one-pot multicomponent reactions as well as efficient reduction of 4-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol. High reaction conversion, short reaction time and simple procedure are some of advantages of this work. In addition, the nanocatalyst could be separated easily from the reaction mixture using an external magnet and reused several consecutive runs for both reactions with only low diminish of its catalytic efficiency.