A new air and moisture stable robust bio-polymer based palladium catalyst for highly efficient synthesis of biaryl compounds

The designs of robust natural polymer based catalysts are important for catalytic systems in the view of industrial purposes and green chemistry. In this study, a new air and moisture stable robust starch-based Pd(II) catalyst was designed and characterized with different analytical techniques. Catalytic behavior of the prepared robust palladium(II) catalyst was investigated in the Suzuki coupling reactions of aryl iodides, aryl bromides and aryl chlorides with phenyl boronic acid under microwave irradiation using very short reaction time. Sustainability and reusability of the catalyst was also explored under benign conditions. As a result of the catalytic tests, the green catalyst gave excellent biphenyl yields, TONs and TOFs with very low catalyst loading. More importantly, the robust catalyst has showed that it can be reused several times without important loses from its activity in the coupling reactions. The study showed that the robust starch-based Pd(II) catalyst had more advantages than other catalysts reported in the literature due to its economic, sustainable, thermal durable, environmentally friendly and practice properties.