Palladium nanoparticles stabilized by aqueous vesicles self-assembled from a PEGylated surfactant ionic liquid for the chemoselective reduction of nitroarenes

Vesicles self-assembled from an aqueous PEGylated surfactant ionic liquid solution can be applied for stabilizing palladium nanoparticles, which prove to be an efficient catalytic system for chemoselective hydrogen transfer of nitroarenes using hydrazine hydrate as a hydrogen source. The particle sizes of vesicles are decreased with the increase of ionic liquid's concentrations and relatively small particle sizes are beneficial to the reduction. Moreover, the aqueous catalytic system still stays in reactor by simple extraction, and is reused without further treatment.