Palladium nanoparticles supported on UIO-66: An efficient catalyst for suzuki coupling

Nanoparticles of zirconium metal organic framework UiO-66 (about 100 nm) have been used as proper supports for Pd nanoparticles. Highly dispersed Pd nanoparticles (about 3–15 nm) were deposed on activated UiO-66 metal organic framework using simple wet impregnation method at room temperature. UiO-66 and the supported Pd nanoparticles (Pd/UiO-66) were characterized by X-ray diffraction, N2 sorption, field emission scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy. Investigation of the catalytic performance of Pd/UiO-66 showed that the synthetic nanocomposites can effectively catalyze the Suzuki–Miyaura cross-coupling reaction of benzeneboronic acid with different aryl halides under mild reaction conditions using environmentally benign solvents.