This paper reports a heterogeneous magnetic impressive nickel catalyst in which Fe3O4 nanoparticles have been coated with chitosan and decorated with nickel nanoparticles (Fe3O4@CS-Ni). This catalyst has been used for direct α-alkylation of aryl ketones with substituted benzyl alcohols through borrowing hydrogen and dehydrogenation mechanism that affords the corresponding α-benzyl ketones, with good to excellent yield. The core-shell morphology has been confirmed with different analysis techniques such as Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), SEM mapping, energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX), inductively coupled plasma (ICP), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Moreover, the catalyst could be recovered from the reaction mixture by using an external magnetic field and reused for six successive cycles without a considerable decrease in catalytic activity.

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