Palladium-based Catalyst for Heterogeneous Photocatalysis
Creators: name: Elhage, Ayda
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 2019
Subjects: Palladium nanoparticles, Photocatalysis
Glass fibers, Flow photochemistry

description: Over the past decade, heterogeneous photocatalysis have gained lots of interest and attention among the organic chemistry community due to its applicability as an alternative to its homogeneous counterpart. Heterogeneous catalysis offers the advantages of easy separation and reusability of the catalyst. Several studies showed that under optimized conditions, efficient and highly selective catalytic systems could be developed using supported metal/metal oxide nanoparticles. In this dissertation, we summarize the progress in the development of supported palladium nanoparticles for different types of organic reactions. Palladium-decorated TiO2 is a moisture, air-tolerant, and versatile catalyst. The direct excitation of Pd nanoparticles selectively isomerized the benzyl-substituted alkenes to phenyl-substituted alkenes (E-isomer) with complete conversion over Pd@TiO2 under H2-free conditions. Likewise, light excited Pd nanoparticles catalyzed Sonogashira coupling, a C-C coupling reaction between different aryl iodides and acetylenes under very mild conditions in short reaction times. On the other hand, UV irradiation of Pd@TiO2 in alcoholic solutions promotes alkenes hydrogenation at room temperature under Argon. Thus, The photocatalytic activity of Pd@TiO2 can be easily tuned by changing the irradiation wavelength. Nevertheless, some of these systems suffer from catalyst deactivation, one of the main challenges faced in heterogeneous catalysis that decreases the reusability potential of the materials. In order to overcome this problem, we developed an innovative method called “Catalytic Farming”. Our reactivation strategy is based on the crop rotation system used in agriculture. Thus, alternating different catalytic reactions using the same catalyst can reactivate the catalyst surface by restoring its oxidation states and extend the catalyst lifetime along with its selectivity and efficiency. In this work, the rotation strategy is illustrated by Sonogashira coupling –problem reaction that depletes the catalyst– and Ullmann homocoupling –plausible recovery reaction that restores the oxidation state of the catalyst (Pd@TiO2). The selection of the reactions in this approach is based on mechanistic studies that include the role of the solvent and evaluation of the palladium oxidation state after each reaction. In a more exploratory analysis, we successfully demonstrated that Pd nanoparticles could be supported in a wide range of materials, including inert ones such as nanodiamonds or glass fibers. The study of the action spectrum shows that direct excitation of the Pd nanoparticles is a requisite for Sonogashira coupling reactions. The main advantages of heterogeneous catalysis compared to its homogeneous counterpart are easy separation and reusability of the catalyst. Finally in order to facilitate catalyst separation from batch reaction and develop a suitable catalytic system for continuous flow chemistry, we employed glass fibers as catalyst support for a wide variety of thermal and photochemical organic reactions including C-C coupling, dehalogenation and cycloaddition. Different metal/metal oxide nanoparticles, namely Pd, Co, Cu, Au, and Ru were deposited on glass wool and fully characterized. As a proof of concept, Pd decorated glass fibers were employed in heterogeneous flow photocatalysis for Sonogashira coupling and reductive de-halogenation of aryl iodides.