Enhancement of Suzuki-Miyaura coupling reaction by photocatalytic palladium nanoparticles anchored to TiO2 under visible light irradiation

Plasmonic property and catalytic performance of Pd anchored to TiO2 for Suzuki-Miyaura coupling (SMC) reactions are reported. Different from previous reports, this semiconductor with band gap >= 3 eV can afford C-C bond formation for SMC. Nano Pd/TiO2 was successfully synthesized through a photodeposition method under sunlight. The size of Pd nanoparticles onto the surface of TiO2 led to enhancement of localized surface plasmon resonance. This visible-light-harvesting heterogeneous photocatalyst sufficiently promoted substrates toward coupling reaction products at ambient temperature in aqueous media. Photo-generated electron-hole pairs under visible light irradiation, are the key components of activation of the substrates.