Mechanochemical Preparation of Pd(II) and Pt(II) Composites with Carbonaceous Materials and Their Application in the Suzuki-Miyaura Reaction at Several Energy Inputs

Pd(II) and Pt(II) composites with activated carbon (AC), graphene oxide, and multiwalled carbon nanotubes were prepared by ball milling and used as catalysts for the Suzuki-Miyaura reaction, under several energy inputs (mechanical grinding, conventional heating, and microwave irradiation). The catalytic composites were characterized by ICP-MS, BET, XPS analyses, TEM, and SEM. The average particle size of the prepared composites was estimated to be in the range of 6–30 nm, while the loadings of Pd and Pt did not significantly affect the surface area of the AC support due to the tendency to agglomerate as observed by the TEM analysis. The Pd/AC composites exhibit high mechanochemical catalytic activity in cross-coupling of bromobenzene and phenylboronic acid with molar yields up to 80% with TON and TOF of 222 and 444 h(−1), respectively, achieved with Pd(4.7 wt%)-AC catalyst under the liquid assisted grinding for 0.5 h at ambient conditions, using cyclohexene as an additive.