Waste corn-cob cellulose supported bio-heterogeneous copper nanoparticles for aza-Michael reactionsElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: NMR data of the aza-Michael products are available. See DOI: 10.1039/c5nj02437d.

Bio-heterogeneous poly(amidoxime) copper nanoparticles were prepared on the modified surface of waste corn-cob cellulose through a graft copolymerization process. The Cu-nanoparticles (0.05 mol% to 50 mol ppm) selectively promoted the aza-Michael reaction of aliphatic amines to give the corresponding alkylated products at room temperature in methanol. The supported nanoparticles were easy to recover and reused eight times without a significant loss of their activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]