Palladium nanoparticles supported on magnetic supramolecular ionic liquid functionalized cellulose: a novel and efficient nanocatalyst for Suzuki cross-coupling in water

Suzuki cross-coupling represents the most popular method for production of unsymmetrical biaryls because of the friendly properties of organoboronic acids, e.g. non-toxicity, air/moisture stability and tolerance of a variety of functional groups [1]. Industrial applications have become a major concern in further development of this technique. In this context, the use of heterogeneous palladium catalysts has attracted increasing attention, because of the drawbacks of homogeneous transition metal catalysis, such as tedious catalyst separation processes, loss of expensive noble metal and residual metal impurities in the products. Therefore, a variety of heterogeneous palladium catalysts have been reported for Suzuki coupling such as commercially available Pd/C [2]. Cellulose is a naturally occurring biopolymer abundantly available in nature and serves as a bio-compatible support for the catalysts [3].In this work,we report a successful synthesis of a new class of the heterogeneous Palladium nano-particles supported on magnetic ionic liquid functionalized cellulose (PdNPs@MSILCs) and its applications in Suzuki cross- couplings in water as a green solvent (Figure 1).