Magnesium oxide supported bimetallic Pd/Cu nanoparticles as an efficient catalyst for Sonogashira reaction

PdCu bimetallic nanoparticles with a diameter of about 3 nm are prepared and supported on a polymeric vinylimidazole ligand modified magnesium oxide. This new material is characterized using different analysis such as XRD, XPS, CHNS, TEM, SEM, and EDX-mapping. PdCu supported on MgO (MgO@PdCu) exhibits high catalytic activity in the Sonogashira coupling reaction of aryl iodides, bromides and chlorides with low Pd loading (0.05–0.2 mol%). This catalyst is recovered and recycled for 11 consecutive runs preserving its catalytic activity in the model reaction of iodobenzene with phenylacetylene for at least 8 cycles. Reused catalyst is characterized with TEM, XPS and EDX showing preservation of the catalyst structure. Using hot filtration and PVP poisoning tests, the catalyst shows a heterogeneous behavior for the model reaction. The authors are grateful to Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences (IASBS) Research Council and Iran National Science Foundation (INSF-Grant number of 95844587) for support of this work. C. Nájera is also thankful to the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) (projects CTQ2013-43446-P and CTQ2014-51912-REDC), the Spanish Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad, Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER, EU) (projects CTQ2016-76782-P and CTQ2016-81797-REDC), the Generalitat Valenciana (PROMETEOII/2014/017) and the University of Alicante for financial support.