A highly stable and efficient magnetically recoverable and reusable Pd nanocatalyst in aqueous media heterogeneously catalysed Suzuki C-C cross-coupling reactions

Surface modification of Fe3O4 nanoparticles with triethoxyethylcyanide groups was used for the immobilization of palladium nanoparticles to produce Fe3O4/Ethyl-CN/Pd. The catalyst was characterized using Fourier transform infrared, wavelength-dispersive X-ray, energy-dispersive X-ray and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopies, field-emission scanning electron and transmission electron microscopies, and X-ray diffraction, vibrating sample magnetometry and inductively coupled plasma analyses. In this fabrication, cyano groups played an important role as a capping agent. The catalytic behaviour of Fe3O4/Ethyl-CN/Pd nanoparticles was measured in the Suzuki cross-coupling reaction of various aryl halides (ArI, ArBr, ArCl) with phenylboronic acid in aqueous phase at room temperature. Interestingly, the novel catalyst could be recovered in a facile manner from the reaction mixture by applying an external magnet device and recycled seven times without any significant loss in activity. Copyright (c) 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.