A phosphine-free heterogeneous formylation of aryl halides catalyzed by a thioether-functionalized MCM-41-immobilized palladium complex

• The MCM-41-S-PdCl2 complex could be easily prepared by a simple procedure.
• This Pd complex was first used to catalyze formylation of aryl halides with CO.
• It exhibited high activity for formylation of aryl halides with HCO2Na under CO.
• This palladium catalyst can be reused 10 times without any decrease in activity.

Thioether-functionalized MCM-41-immobilized palladium(II) complex [MCM-41-S-PdCl2] was found to be a highly efficient catalyst for the formylation of aryl iodides or bromides with CO (1 atm) using HCO2Na as a hydrogen source. This phosphine-free heterogeneous palladium complex can be easily recovered by simple filtration and reused for at least 10 consecutive trials without any decreases in activity.