Cellulose nanocrystals -palladium, a novel recyclable catalyst for coupling reaction

A new Schiff base catalyst (Pd (II) chemically mounted on the cellulose nanocrystals surface (CNC-APTES-IS-Pd) was developed for Ulmann and Suzuki cross-coupling reactions. The catalyst was applied for Ulmann reaction using s series of aryl halide and phenol derivatives in DMSO and preparation of biaryls via Suzuki C-C reactions between aryl halides and phenyl boronic acid. The Catalyst was characterized by FT-IR, XRD, SEM, ICP-AES and TGA techniques. The catalyst demonstrated high reaction efficiency with more than 90% reaction yield. The catalyst indicated good performance after several times recovery and reuse.