Carbon coated copper nanostructures as a green and ligand free nanocatalyst for Suzuki cross-coupling reaction

In this work, carbon coated copper nanoparticles and nanowires were synthesized as a ligand free nanocatalyst that naturally contains ppm levels of Pd with no post-modification via a two-steps reduction-hydrothermal process. Transmittance electron microscope (TEM), scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction, inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), and Raman spectroscopy were employed for the characterization of the nano-catalyst. The utilization of the synthesized Cu/C nano-catalyst in Suzuki cross coupling reaction showed a high performance in the synthesis of various biaryls in water. Moreover, this catalyst reused successfully with no significant yield decrease even after four subsequently runs. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.