Magnetic cellulose/Ag as a novel eco-friendly nanobiocomposite to catalyze synthesis of chromene-linked nicotinonitriles

[Display omitted] •A new, green and magnetic cellulose/Ag nanobiocomposite catalyst was introduced.•The new nanocatalyst was characterized by FT-IR, EDX, FE-SEM, VSM and TGA/DTA.•It was efficiently applied in the synthesis of chromene-linked nicotinonitriles.•The heterogeneous nanocatalyst was simply recovered and reused for several times. In this work, design, preparation and performance of magnetic cellulose/Ag nanobiocomposite as a recyclable and highly efficient heterogeneous nanocatalyst is described. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern, vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) curve, field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) image, energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis and thermogravimetric analysis/differential thermal analysis (TGA/DTA) were used for the characterization. Then, its activity was investigated in the synthesis of 2-amino-6-(2-oxo-2H-chromen-3-yl)-4-phenylnicotinonitrile derivatives. The main advantages of the reaction are high yields and short reaction times. The remarkable magnetic property of the nanobiocomposite catalyst provides easy separation from the reaction mixture by an external magnet without considerable loss of its catalytic activity.