Cellulose nanocrystallites as an efficient support for nanoparticles of palladium: application for catalytic hydrogenation and Heck coupling under mild conditions

We report herein the synthesis of a new hybrid material, PdNPs[at]CNCs consisting of monodisperse Pd nanoparticles (PdNPs) evenly deposited onto colloidal cellulose nanocrystallites (CNCs). This material proved an active catalyst for the hydrogenation reaction of phenol to cyclohexanone in water as a solvent, at room temperature, under 4 bar of dihydrogen. Moreover, the catalyst perfomed well in the Heck coupling of styrene and iodobenzene in a hydro-organic mixture. CNCs constitute a highly crystalline, ordered and yet accessible green material easily obtained from wood pulp. This work demonstrates the possibility of using colloidal CNCs as an efficient support for catalysis.