Heck coupling catalyzed by Pd exchanged supported 12-tunstophosphoric acid—an efficient ligand free, low Pd-loading heterogeneous catalyst

A stable, efficient ligand free, low Pd-loading heterogeneous catalyst comprising Palladium and supported 12-tunstophosphoric acid was synthesized and characterized by various physico-chemical techniques. The catalytic performance of this Pd-exchanged supported 12-tunstophosphoric acid was evaluated for the Heck coupling of olefins with halobenzene. A catalytic activity for recycled catalyst was also evaluated under optimized conditions. The results demonstrated that the catalyst was truly heterogeneous, stable and very active under the present reaction conditions, and could be reused up to three cycles without any significant leaching.