Pd–Ni Alloy Nanoparticles as Effective Catalysts for Miyaura–Heck Coupling Reactions

Abstract

In this work, Pd–Ni alloy nanoparticles (NPs) were produced by a facile and efficient one-pot synthetic strategy in the presence of oleylamine (OAm) and triphenylphosphine (TPP). Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy-dispersive spectrometry (EDS) mapping, inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were used to investigate the structure of Pd–Ni alloy NPs, which demonstrated that the as-prepared alloy NPs possessed uniform sizes and tunable compositions. Importantly, we found that TPP could affect the morphology of the Pd–Ni alloy. When TPP was absent from the reaction, the morphology of the Pd–Ni alloy was not uniform. In addition, the as-prepared Pd–Ni alloy NPs showed conspicuous composition-dependent catalytic activities for the Miyaura–Heck reaction. In the series of the Pd–Ni alloy NPs, Pd1Ni1 has an excellent effect for the Miyaura–Heck reactions. Furthermore, the Pd–Ni alloy NPs were also effective for different substrates in the Miyaura–Heck reactions. Compared to pure palladium, the Pd–Ni alloy NPs as the catalysts show better catalytic activity, selectivity, and stability.