Facilitating a high-performance photocatalyst for Suzuki reaction: Palladium nanoparticles immobilized on reduced graphene oxide-doped graphitic carbon nitride

Abstract

We prepared a non-covalently coupled hybrid of reduced graphene oxide (rGO)-doped graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) by freezing-assisted assembly and calcination. Fourier transform infrared, Raman and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopies and transmission electron microscopy confirmed that rGO was incorporated into the bulk g-C3N4, which was an ideal support for loading Pd nanoparticles. The Pd nanoparticles with an average size of 4.57 nm were uniformly dispersed on the rGO-doped g-C3N4 surface. The layered structure provided large contact area of g-C3N4 with rGO, further accelerating the electron transfer rate and inhibiting electron–hole recombination. Consequently, compared with Pd/rGO/g-C3N4 and Pd/g-C3N4, the Pd/rGO-doped g-C3N4 showed a prominent catalytic activity for visible-light-driven photocatalytic Suzuki–Miyaura coupling at ambient temperature. The Pd/rGO-doped g-C3N4 exhibited very high stability after six consecutive cycles with minimal loss of catalytic activity.