Polydopamine nanofilms as visible light-harvesting interfaces for palladium nanocrystal catalyzed coupling reactions

Abstract

Light-harvesting material is of great importance for the efficient use of solar energy to drive catalytic reactions in chemistry. We herein report mussel-inspired polydopamine nanofilms as light-harvesting interfaces for heterogeneous palladium catalyzed coupling reactions under irradiation from visible light. Our strategy includes the in situ growth of palladium nanocrystals on a polydopamine nanofilm to prepare photocatalysts and photocatalytic Suzuki coupling reactions involving a broad range of aryl bromides/iodides and arylboronic acid substrates. The polydopamine based photocatalysts could be supported on various carriers regardless of size or morphology, thus they are easily recycled and reused. A plausible photocatalytic mechanism has been proposed including light-harvesting, photoelectron-hole separation and transfer processes. This strategy also has potential for other noble metals such as platinum, indium and gold photocatalytic organic reactions such as couplings, reductions and oxidations.