Facile fabrication of magnetically separable palladium nanoparticles supported on modified kaolin as a highly active heterogeneous catalyst for Suzuki coupling reactions

In this study, Fe3O4 loaded Schiff base modified kaolin was prepared as a new support and palladium nanoparticles were anchored on it without any additional reducing agent (Pd NPs@Kao/Fe3O4/Pyr). Characterization studies demonstrated that Pd NPs@Kao/Fe3O4/Pyr was successfully designed and the size of particles was about 25 nm. Pd NPs@Kao/Fe3O4/Pyr was then utilized as catalyst in the preparation of biaryl compounds via Suzuki cross coupling reactions. Catalytic tests showed that Pd NPs@Kao/Fe3O4/Pyr acted as a highly active heterogeneous nanocatalyst in the coupling reaction of aryl iodides, bromides and chlorides containing different functional groups. Moreover, it was found that Pd NPs@Kao/Fe3O4/Pyr was successfully used in consecutive recycling tests and gave an 89% yield even after ten runs. In addition to the high catalytic behavior and reusability, Pd NPs@Kao/Fe3O4/Pyr have some advantages such as i) capability of application for various halides containing different functional groups, ii) ease of purification of final product and iii) simple work-up.