Controllable synthesis of palladium nanoparticles and their catalytic abilities in Heck and Suzuki reactions

The monodisperse palladium nanoparticles with the size of about 5.0 nm were prepared by the thermal decomposition of palladium acetylacetonate in the presence of oleylamine and borane tributylamine complex. The palladium nanoparticles were loaded on the active carbon black by the sonication followed by the acetic acid cleaning, and then they are used as the nanocatalysts for carbon coupling reactions, such as Heck reactions and Suzuki reactions. The nanocatalysts can promote Heck reactions and Suzuki reactions efficiently with the high catalytic activity and stability. The nanocatalysts can be recycled for at least six times and their morphologies almost have no great changes. In addition, the catalytic performances of nanocatalysts would decrease with the repeated usages due to the increasing sizes of the palladium nanoparticles. (C) 2014 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.