Supported phosphine free bis-NHC palladium pincer complex: An efficient reusable nanocatalyst for Suzuki-Miyaura coupling reaction

Abstract A periodic mesoporous organosilica material functionalized with a bis-NHC palladium pincer complex was synthesized by sol-gel process. The resulting organic-inorganic hybrid nano material was characterized by XRD, TEM, SEM, TGA analysis, and BET measurements. The hybrid nanomaterial act as highly active catalysts for the Suzuki–Miyaura cross-coupling between deactivated aryl chlorides and phenylboronic acid under heterogeneous and aerobic conditions. The supported catalyst exhibited excellent activity and stability and it could be reused at least ten times without any significant loss of activity. Furthermore, the SEM image revealed that high order mesostructure of the recycled nanocatalyst. After ninth run, catalyst showed almost similar structure as compared to the fresh catalyst. ICP-AES detected no Pd contamination in the products, and leaching tests verified that the reaction was truly heterogeneous.