Palladium nanoparticles supported on Fe3O4/amino acid nanocomposite: Highly active magnetic catalyst for solvent-free aerobic oxidation of alcohols

In this paper, Fe3O4 nanoparticles were coated by a number of amino acids, e.g. cysteine, serine, glycine and beta-alanine, via a simple method. Because of the surface modification of the magnetic nanoparticles with amino acid, the obtained magnetic nanocomposite is able to trap palladium nanoparticles through a strong interaction between the metal nanoparticles and the functional groups of amino acids. Among the synthesized nanocomposites, Fe3O4/cysteine-Pd exhibited the highest catalytic performance and excellent selectivity in the solvent-free aerobic oxidation of various alcohols, along with high level of reusability. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.