Metal nanoparticles decorated two-dimensional nanosheets as heterogeneous catalysts for coupling reactions

This review presents a brief discussion on the numerous synthetic techniques used to prepare metal nanoparticles supported on various two-dimensional (2D) materials. Special emphasis has been given to graphene and other 2D analogues such as g-C3N4, h-BN, MoS2, WS2 etc. supported metal nanoparticles. In addition to these, this review outlines the applications of the developed metal nanoparticles–2D composite materials for catalytic coupling reactions, which have recently emerged as a promising strategy in carbon–heteroatom or carbon–carbon bond formation. The effect of size and morphology of metal nanoparticles–2D composite materials on their catalytic performance toward different coupling reactions such as Suzuki, Heck, Sonogashira, etc. have been discussed in detail.