Nitrogen-doped graphdiyne for effective metal deposition and heterogeneous Suzuki-Miyaura coupling catalysis

For heterogeneous catalysts with nitrogen doped carbon materials as supporting substrates, accurate nitrogen (N) species and content is an important factor for promoting the catalytic activity. In this paper, N-doped graphdiyne (NGDY) was prepared from tetraethynylpyrazine (TEP) by bottom-up synthesis method as the support of metal nanoparticles. Specific pyridine nitrogen atoms are introduced in the N-doped carbon material. This unique structure makes it a promising material to support ultrafine metal particles or clusters. Microwave-assisted anchoring of Pd, Pt, Cu, Ni nanoparticles on NGDY generated novel hybrid composites, in which Pd-NGDY has high versatility for Suzuki-Miyaura reaction. DFT calculations revealed a charge transfer from NGDY to Pd NPs, and the free energy distribution showed a downward trend for Suzuki-Miyaura coupling reactions.