A highly active and reusable heterogeneous catalyst for the Suzuki reaction: synthesis of biaryls and polyaryls

Abstract

A novel silica supported palladium catalyst has been prepared and investigated for the Suzuki cross-coupling reaction between aryl bromides and benzeneboronic acid in the presence of K₂CO₃ as base and o-xylene as solvent. The key features of the catalyst include rapid reactions with 100% conversion of aryl bromides, excellent catalyst recyclability and total stability under the reaction conditions (passes hot filtration test successfully). No change in the catalyst structure has been observed on the basis of surface analysis and simultaneous thermal analysis even after the 7^th use. The catalyst can be used for consecutive Suzuki reactions in a single step and hence successfully applied to the synthesis of polyaryls.