Magnetic g-C 3 N 4 nanocomposite-catalyzed environmentally benign aminolysis of epoxide Tahereh Soleymani Ahooie 1 • Najmedin Azizi 1,2 • Mohammad Mahmoudi Hashemi 1 • Issa Yavari 1 Received: 26 July 2017 / Accepted: 28 August 2017 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2017 Abstract A magnetic graphitic carbon nitride (g-C 3 N 4 ) nanocomposite was pre- pared and used as a novel magnetically retrievable nanocatalyst for efficient ring opening of epoxides with aromatic amines. A variety of aryl and alkyl epoxides were examined under the mild reaction condition and the corresponding b-amino alcohols were obtained in good to excellent yields under solvent-free condition. Using the Fe 3 O 4 as a low-priced magnetic support to immobilize an active material g-C 3 N 4 can provide a better result than using traditional catalysts with respect to the efficiency, yield, easy work-up, short reaction time, possibility of regeneration, and ease of applicability . Keywords Epoxide Á Magnetic g-C 3 N 4 Á Ring opening Á Aminolysis Introduction Carbon-based nanocomposite materials can provide a better result than using traditional catalysts with respect to applications in energy, pharmaceutical, [1, 2] magnetic resonance imaging, separation technique, optical application and especially in catalytic performances [3–5]. Over the past two decades, the rapid progress of nanomaterials- and nanostructures-based technology has enabled researchers to fabricate devices on the molecular and nanoscale to a great extent [6, 7]. Among the nanostructure materials, graphitic carbon nitride (g-C 3 N 4 ) has & Najmedin Azizi azizi@ccerci.ac.ir 1 Department of Chemistry, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran 2 Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Research Center of Iran, P.O. Box 14335-186, Tehran, Iran 123 Res Chem Intermed DOI 10.1007/s11164-017-3176-0