Application of Doped Clay by Plasmonic Nanoparticles in the Suzuki–Miyaura Cross-Coupling Reaction

The goal of this paper is to study the catalytic activity of clay-based materials doped by silver, copper, and gold nanoparticles in the Suzuki–Miyaura coupling reaction. The catalysts are prepared by homogeneous deposition precipitation at 2 wt% of metal. The properties of the catalysts were obtained using these methods: SEM (scanning electron microscopy), high-angle annular dark field, EDS (energy dispersive spectroscopy), DRS/UV–Vis (diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, UV–Vis), XRD (x-ray diffraction), ICP (elementary analysis), and adsorption–desorption of N 2 and infrared spectroscopy. The results showed an almost total homogeneous deposition of the metallic nanoparticles on the clay surface. All the catalysts were used in the synthesis of biphenyls using the Suzuki–Miyaura reaction with phenylboronic acid and different aryl halides under classical heating or under visible irradiation. The results have shown the obtaining of interesting coupling rates exceeding 5.44 mol/h/g which depend on the catalyst nature, the aryl halide, and the mode of the activation of the reaction. The different reaction conditions have been optimized.