Palladium chloride anchored on organic functionalized MCM-41 as a catalyst for the Heck reaction

Palladium chloride was grafted to amino-functionalized MCM-41 to prepare heterogeneous catalysts. XRD, N-2 adsorption-desorption isotherms, IR, C-13 and Si-29 cross-polarization magic-angle spinning NMR spectroscopy and XPS techniques were employed to characterize the catalytic materials. The heterogeneous palladium catalyst exhibited excellent catalytic activity for the Heck vinylation of iodobenzene with methyl acrylate, giving 92% yield of methyl cinnamate in the presence of N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP) and triethylamine (Et3N). The stability of the heterogeneous catalyst was also studied in detail. The catalytic tests showed that the palladium leaching correlated to solvent, base and palladium loading. The heterogeneous catalyst exhibited excellent stability towards loss of activity and palladium leaching was not observed during six recycles in the presence of toluene and Na2CO3. Copyright (c) 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.