Oxidant free dehydrogenation of alcohols using chitosan/polyacrylamide entrapped Ag nanoparticlesElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See DOI: 10.1039/c5ra05046d

Silver nanoparticles encaged in a nanoporous chitosan/polyacrylamide interpenetrating polymer network (Ag@IPN) were synthesized and characterized by various techniques such as Fourier Transform Infra Red (FTIR), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy-Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (SEM-EDX), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) and ICP-AES. This material exhibits good catalytic activity for the oxidant free dehydrogenation of alcohols to the corresponding carbonyl compounds. The reusability of Ag@IPN for this reaction was compared with a chitosan-silver complex under the same reaction conditions. It was found that encaging silver nanoparticles in interpenetrating polymer networks (IPN) has improved their stability by avoiding leaching and aggregation. Silver nanoparticles encaged in nanoporous chitosan/polyacrylamide interpenetrating polymer network (Ag@IPN) were synthesized, characterized and used for oxidant free dehydrogenation of alcohols.