The catalytic performance of palladium-polymer functional nanocomposites

Nanoparticles are fundamentally important materials for implementing nanotechnology in diverse areas. Since these nanoparticles exhibit interesting size- and shape-dependent physical and chemical properties, the synthesis of uniform nanoparticles with controlled sizes and shapes is of great importance. Metal nanoparticles of various sizes and shapes can be combined with polymers to form different advanced nanocomposite materials with interesting physicochemical properties and important applications. Such nanocomposites will be discussed here with the emphasis on their catalytic performance for different reactions. Depending upon the synthesis techniques used for the composite materials, the ultimate properties of the resulting composites can be controlled. Palladium nanoparticles show excellent performance as catalysts in carbon-carbon and carbon-heteroatom bond formation. Polymer supported palladium nanoparticles have seen a fascinating development in recent years as catalysts for different key reactions. Polymer supported palladium nanoparticles such as poly(A-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone), poly (ethylene glycol) and polyaniline have been found to be more effective catalysts for Heck and Suzuki coupling reactions when the polymer acts not only as a reducing agent, but also as a stabilizer of the nanoparticles. The catalytic efficiency, longevity, reactivity, selectivity and detailed mechanistic studies on a number of highly active polymer supported palladium catalysts for various reactions and applications are highlighted in this chapter.