Stabilizing Pd on the surface of amine-functionalized hollow Fe3O4 spheres: a highly active and recyclable catalyst for Suzuki cross-coupling and hydrogenation reactions

Abstract

A palladium-based catalyst supported on amine-functionalized hollow magnetite nanoparticles was successfully prepared by a facile template-free method. The catalyst was characterized by TEM, XRD, FT-IR, VSM and XPS. The catalyst afforded fast conversions for various aromatic nitro compounds under a H₂ atmosphere in ethanol even at room temperature. Furthermore, it was found that the catalyst showed a high activity for the Suzuki reaction. Interestingly, the novel catalyst could be recovered in a facile manner from the reaction mixture and recycled five times without any significant loss in activity.