Design of a palladium nanocatalyst produced from Schiff base modified dialdehyde cellulose and its application in aryl halide cyanation and reduction of nitroarenes

In this paper, a versatile heterogeneous catalyst system (Pd-DAC-Sch) based on stabilization of palladium nanoparticles on dialdehyde cellulose Schiff base (DAC-Sch) was developed and characterized thoroughly by a variety of spectroscopic (FT-IR, XRD, 13C CPMAS, and TG) and microscopic (SEM/EDS and TEM) methods. Then the prepared Pd-DAC-Sch system was evaluated as a heterogeneous nanocatalyst for aryl halide cyanation in the presence of K4[Fe(CN)6] and for reduction of nitroarenes to amines using NaBH4 in water at room temperature. Pd-DAC-Sch nanocatalyst efficiently cyanated various aryl halides by providing satisfactory reaction yields of 87–98%. Moreover, Pd-DAC-Sch catalyzed 4-nitrophenole (4-NA), 2-nitroaniline (2-NA), and 4-nitroaniline (4-NA) reductions in short reaction time. More importantly, Pd-DAC-Sch nanocatalyst was reapplied up to six successive runs by giving a yield of 86% without any important changes in its morphology and structure. This paper shows that Pd-DAC-Sch is a highly effective, reusable, chemically stable, and therefore a useful nanocatalyst