A novel thermo and pH-double sensitive hydrogel immobilized Pd catalyst for Heck and Suzuki reactions in aqueous media

A novel Hydrogel (1) was prepared from N-isopropylacrylamide, 4-vinylpyridine and potassium acrylate by free radical cross-linking polymerization. Hydrogel (1) showed both thermosensitivity and pH-sensitivity, and exhibited high swelling capacity in water. Because Hydrogel (1) has porous structure in its network and good loading performance with Pd2+, it was used as “microreactor” for immobilization of metal nanoparticles. We chose Heck and Suzuki reaction of aryl halides in water as test reaction to probe the catalytic activity of such Hydrogel (1) supported palladium catalyst. As a result, the Hydrogel (1)-Pd (II) catalyst exhibited good catalytic activity in both Heck and Suzuki reactions. Moreover, the Hydrogel (1)-Pd (II) catalyst was easily recovered and recycled. The reuse experiments showed that it was recycled six times without obviously losing of catalytic activity.