A novel reagentless approach for synthesizing cellulose nanocrystal-supported palladium nanoparticles with enhanced catalytic performance

We report a one step and environment-friendly synthesis of cellulose nanocrystal (CN)-supported palladium nanoparticles (Pd NPs) without employing any other reductants, capping or dispersing agents. CNs played a dual role as a supporting matrix and a reductant and they were used to obtain stable dispersions of Pd NPs. The obtained hybrid material exhibited much higher activities than the unsupported and other polymer-supported Pd NPs in the catalyzed reduction of methylene blue and 4-nitrophenol. The approach presented in this paper promotes the use of renewable natural resources to prepare a variety of hybrid inorganic-organic materials for the purpose of catalysis, sensors, and other potential applications.