Green heterogeneous Pd(II) catalyst produced from chitosan-cellulose micro beads for green synthesis of biaryls

In green catalyst systems, both the catalyst and the technique should be environmentally safe. In this study we designed a green palladium(II) catalyst for microwave-assisted Suzuki [Formula presented] coupling reactions. The catalyst support was produced from biopolymers; chitosan and cellulose. The catalytic activity of the catalyst was tested on 16 substrates in solvent-free media and compared with those of commercial palladium salts. Reusability tests were done. The catalyst was also used in conventional reflux-heating system to demonstrate the efficiency of microwave heating method. We recorded high activity, selectivity and excellent TONs (6600) and TOFs (82500) just using a small catalyst loading (1.5 × 10⁻³ mol%) in short reaction time (5 min). The catalyst exhibited a long lifetime (9 runs). The findings indicated that both green chitosan/cellulose-Pd(II) catalyst and the microwave heating are suitable for synthesis of biaryl compounds by using Suzuki [Formula presented] coupling reactions.