Aqueous biphasic treatment of some nitrocompounds with hydrogen in the presence of a biogenerated Pd-polysaccharide

• Pd-EPS was prepared by Klebsiella oxytoca grown aerobically in static mode in the presence of Pd(NO3)2.
• Pd-EPS catalyzed the hydrogenation of nitrobenzene to aniline.
• Pd-EPS was active only in the presence of water.
• Pd-EPS was easily recovered and reused in recycling experiments.

A strain of Klebsiella oxytoca BAS-10, known to produce a specific exopolysaccharide (EPS), when grown aerobically in static mode in the presence of Pd(NO3)2, generated the species Pd-EPS that was used as catalyst precursor in the aqueous biphasic treatment of some nitrocompounds with hydrogen. Nitrobenzene was hydrogenated to aniline with almost quantitative yields and the catalyst, embedded in the aqueous phase, was used with success and with near the same efficiency in three recycling experiments. In the case of 1-iodo-4-nitrobenzene only nitrobenzene was obtained while the unsaturated nitro compound β-methyl-β-nitrostyrene afforded both the corresponding oxime and the saturated nitro derivative.

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