High Catalytic Activity and Recyclability of Graphene Oxide Based Palladium Nanocomposites in Sonogashira Reaction

Graphene and graphene oxide (GO) have been modified with palladium nanoparticles (Pd NPs) to develop high performance catalysts for the Sonogashira cross coupling reaction. To understand catalytic performance of Pd NPs on graphene (Pd/G) and Pd NPs on GO (Pd/GO), we monitored their morphological and electronic structural changes before/after Sonogashira reaction using FT-IR, XRD, XPS, and XAFS. Here, we demonstrate that both Pd/G and Pd/GO show high catalytic efficiency toward the Sonogashira reaction, but only Pd/GO revealed excellent recyclability. The remarkable catalytic efficiency of both catalysts is attributed to the high degree of the Pd NP dispersions on supports and thus smaller Pd NPs can provide highly reactive low coordinated Pd atoms. However, we attributed the excellent recyclability of Pd/GO to the presence of oxygen functionalities on GO, which can provide nucleation sites for the detached Pd atoms during the Sonogashira reaction and prevent agglomeration of the Pd NPs since the oxygen functional groups are very reactive to mobile Pd adatoms.