Immobilization of palladium in mesoporous silica matrix: preparation, characterization, and its catalytic efficacy in carbon-carbon coupling reactions

Palladium(0) has been immobilized into the silica-based mesoporous material to develop catalyst Pd(0)-MCM-41, which is found to be highly active in carbon-carbon coupling reactions. Pd(NH3)4]2+ ions have been incorporated into the mesoporous material during synthesis of MCM-41 and subsequently upon treatments with hydrazine hydrate Pd2+ ions present in mesoporous silica matrix were reduced to Pd(0) almost instantaneously. The catalyst has been characterized by small-angle X-ray diffraction, N2 sorption, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). TEM and surface area measurements clearly demonstrate that the immobilization of Pd(0) into the mesoporous silica has a significant effect on pore structure of the catalyst. Nevertheless, after immobilization of palladium the meso-porosity of the material is retained, as evidenced in the nitrogen sorption measurement. The TEM micrograph shows that both MCM-41 and Pd(0)-MCM-41 have similar types of external surface morphology; however, Pd(0)-MCM-41 was less ordered. Pd(0)-MCM-41 showed high catalytic activity toward carbon-carbon bond formation reactions like Heck and Sonogashira coupling, as evidenced in high turn-over numbers. In contrast to many other Pd-based catalysts reported so far, Pd(0)-MCM-41 acts as a truly heterogeneous catalyst in C-C coupling reactions. Notably, the new heterogeneous catalyst is found to be efficient in the activation of arylchloride to give impressive conversion in cross coupling (15-45% for Heck and 30% for Sonogashira) reactions under mild conditions.