Reduction of Nitrobenzene to Aniline by CO/H2O in the Presence of Palladium Nanoparticles

The transformation of aromatic nitrocompounds into amines by CO/H2O is catalyzed by palladium(II) complexes. Recently, we have proposed that the catalytic cycle includes Pd0 as the transient intermediate and herein, for the first time, we describe the application of palladium nanoparticles (PdNPs) stabilized by monodentate N-heterocyclic ligands as nanocatalysts facilitating the reduction of Ar–NO2 into Ar–NH2 by CO/H2O. Among the series—Pd(II) complexes, PdNPs and commercial Pdblack—the highest catalytic activity was observed for PdNPs (3.0 ± 0.5 nm) stabilized by 4-Me-pyridine in the presence of 2-Cl-pyridine. The results may be helpful for mechanistic considerations on the role of metallic nanoparticles as active species in other organic processes.