Hollow palladium–cobalt bimetallic nanospheres as an efficient and reusable catalyst for Sonogashira-type reactions

The synthesis and characterization of hollow Pd–Co bimetallic nanospheres are reported. During Sonogashira-type coupling reactions between aryl halides and terminal alkynes in aqueous medium, these hollow materials exhibited much higher activity than the solid counterpart nanoparticles. Moreover, the catalytic activity could be adjusted via changing the catalyst composition. The enhanced activity was attributed to both the hollow chamber structure and the promotional effect of Co-dopants, which provided more Pd active sites for the reactants.