Palladium-bearing intermetallic electride as an efficient and stable catalyst for Suzuki cross-coupling reactions

Suzuki cross-coupling reactions catalyzed by palladium are powerful tools for the synthesis of functional organic compounds. Excellent catalytic activity and stability require negatively charged Pd species and the avoidance of metal leaching or clustering in a heterogeneous system. Here we report a Pd-based electride material, Y(3)Pd(2), in which active Pd atoms are incorporated in a lattice together with Y. As evidenced from detailed characterization and density functional theory (DFT) calculations, Y(3)Pd(2) realizes negatively charged Pd species, a low work function and a high carrier density, which are expected to be beneficial for the efficient Suzuki coupling reaction of activated aryl halides with various coupling partners under mild conditions. The catalytic activity of Y(3)Pd(2) is ten times higher than that of pure Pd and the activation energy is lower by nearly 35%. The Y(3)Pd(2) intermetallic electride catalyst also exhibited extremely good catalytic stability during long-term coupling reactions.