Palladium Nanoparticles Immobilized on Nano-Silica Triazine Dendritic Polymer (Pdnp-nSTDP): An Efficient and Reusable Catalyst for Suzuki-Miyaura Cross-Coupling and Heck Reactions

A new catalyst based on palladium nanoparticles immobilized on nano-silica triazine dendritic polymer (Pdnp-nSTDP) was synthesized and characterized by FT-IR spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, field emission scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray, transmission electron microscopy and elemental analysis. The size of the palladium nanoparticles was determined to be 3.1±0.5 nm. This catalytic system showed high activity in the Suzuki–Miyaura cross-coupling of aryl iodides, bromides and chlorides with arylboronic acids and also in the Heck reaction of these aryl halides with styrenes. These reactions were best performed in a dimethylformamide (DMF)/water mixture (1:3) in the presence of only 0.006 mol% and 0.01 mol% of the catalyst, respectively, under conventional conditions and microwave irradiation to afford the desired coupling products in high yields. The Pdnp-nSTDP was also used as an efficient catalyst for the preparation of a series of star- and banana-shaped compounds with a benzene, pyridine, pyrimidine or 1,3,5-triazine unit as the central core. Moreover, the catalyst could be recovered easily and reused several times without any considerable loss of its catalytic activity.