Cost-effective nitrogen-doped carbon black supported PdCu alloy nanocatalyst for green Suzuki-Miyaura reactions under mild conditions

A nitrogen-doped carbon black (NCB) supported PdCu alloy nanocatalyst is fabricated via a facile one-pot soft chemistry route. The PdCu nanoparticles are uniformly dispersed on the NCB surface with an average size of 3.51 nm. The PdCu/NCB catalyst exhibits superior catalytic activity and significantly improved durability towards the Suzuki-Miyaura coupling reaction in ethanol/water system under mild conditions without a protective atmosphere. Particularly, the Pd5Cu5/NCB catalyst can efficiently catalyzed the SMC reaction with the yield up to 94% in 1.5 h, 7-fold higher than that by the pristine Pd/NCB catalyst (13%). Compared with the carbon black supported PdCu catalyst, nitrogen-doping can lead to better dispersion of the PdCu alloy nanoparticles on the NCB surface with a smaller particle size. The excellent catalytic performance can be attributed to the unique nanostructure of the catalyst and concerted effect of the individual components. Notably, alloying Pd with Cu can effectively reduce the cost of the catalyst.