Mild and Rapid Light-Driven Suzuki-Miyaura Reactions Catalyzed by AuPd Nanoparticles in Water at Room Temperature

Organic reactions carried out in water under mild conditions are state-of-the-art in terms of environmentally benign chemical processes. In this direction, plasmonic catalysis can aid in accomplishing such tasks. In the present work, cyclodextrin-mediated AuPd bimetallic nanoparticles (NPs) were applied in room-temperature aqueous Suzuki-Miyaura reactions aiming at preparing biaryl products based on fluorene, isatin, benzimidazole and resorcinol, with yields of 77 % up to 95 %. AuPd NPs were revealed to be a physical mixture of Au and Pd particles circa 20 and 2 nm, respectively, through X-ray diffraction, dynamic light scattering, UV-Vis spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy analyses.