Palladium-nanoparticle catalyst with quantitative production developed

November 15, 2013

A recyclable catalyst with applications for pharmaceutical synthesis

Together with Kyushu University and JST, RIKEN CSRS has succeeded in developing a highly efficient palladium-nanoparticle and silicon-nanowire-array hybrid catalyst. This new catalyst can be used in the manufacture of organic solar batteries and the synthesis of pharmaceuticals.

Using this catalyst, researchers carried out Mizoroki-Heck cross-coupling and were able to attain a 0.49 mol ppm reaction with only one ten-thousandth the normal amount of catalyst. Moreover, the catalyst turnover number (an indicator of catalytic activity) was 2 million, which represents one of the highest efficiencies in the world for effective immobilized catalysts using this reaction.

Further refinements of this catalyst could potentially lead to practical use at large-scale chemical plants.

Original article

Angewandte Chemie International Edition doi: 10.1002/anie.201308541 and 10.1002/ange.201308541

Y. M. A. Yamada, Y. Yuyama, T. Sato, S. Fujikawa, Y. Uozumi,

"A Palladium-Nanoparticle and Silicon-Nanowire-Array Hybrid: A Platform for Catalytic Heterogeneous Reactions".

Contact

Yoichi Yamada

Deputy Team Leader

Green Nanocatalysis Research Team