A general scheme for the oxidation of benzyl alcohols catalyzed by silica functionalized copper (II) has been designed. TEMPO, a free radical, assists this oxidation that was initiated by molecular oxygen which converts it to a primary oxidant. This catalytic combination i.e. SiO₂ -Cu(II) in presence of TEMPO and oxygen provides excellent results in terms of yields and reaction time. SiO₂ -Cu(II) was very well characterized by different spectroscopic techniques such as FTIR, XRD, TGA, XPS, EDAX, SEM, TEM and AAS and is recyclable upto five times which makes it economically beneficial.

Solid supported copper (0) nanoparticles were prepared by physical adsorption of copper (0)nanoparticles (synthesized through bottom-up approach) on the solid supports such as silica, HAP, cellulose andbasic alumina. Studies comparing these supported catalysts were done with the synthesis of arylmethylene-bis-(3-hydroxy-2-cyclohexene-1-one) via the cascade Knoevenagel/Michael reaction. The highly efficient catalystwas characterized by spectroscopic techniques like XPS, TGA, EDX, SEM, TEM and AAS. The biologicalimportance of arylmethylene-bis-(3-hydroxy-2-cyclohexene-1-one) enforced us to synthesize these compoundscatalytically using solid supported copper (0) nanopartcles.