PdxCuy decorate hypercrosslinked network: Synthesis and application as efficient catalysts for the reduction of 4-nitrophenol and Suzuki-Miyaura coupling reaction

4-nitrophenol may accumulate in the food chain and cause various fatal diseases. Hence, in order to meet the principle of safety, health and environmental protection, achieving high conversion of 4-nitrophenol with efficient and cheaper method is always in demand. In this aspect, a series of five PdxCuy/Ph-Sa-1 (4:0, 3:1, 2:2, 1:3 and 0:4) catalysts were designed and characterized by FT-IR, TEM, SEM, TGA, AAS, XPS and so on. Furthermore, the catalytic performance of several PdxCuy/Ph-Sa-1 were investigated via 4-nitrophenol reduction and kinetics, wherein Pd2Cu2/Ph-Sa-1 showed higher catalytic activity than Pd/Ph-Sa-1 with the same Pd content. In particular, Pd/Ph-Sa-1 also exhibited excellent catalytic performance in Suzuki-Miyaura coupling reaction. Linking salen-1 monomer and benzene through Scholl reaction was presented as an effective route to obtain polymeric substrate with low-cost and simple synthesis method. In addition, Pd/Ph-Sa-1 showed desirable recyclability with maintaining its catalytic activity even after five recycles, we also studied the morphology and Pd state of Pd/Ph-Sa-1 after five recycles by TEM and XPS. This work is highly suggestive on the heterogeneous catalysts design and application.