Pd immobilized on magnetic chitosan as a heterogeneous catalyst for acetalization and hydrogenation reactions

A palladium-based catalyst supported on chitosan magnetite nanoparticles was successfully prepared by a facile one-pot template-free method combined with a metal adsorption–reduction procedure. The catalyst was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), transmission electron microscope (TEM), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), X-ray powder detection (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The catalyst afforded fast conversions for various aromatic nitro and unsaturated compounds, a under a H2 atmosphere in ethanol, even at room temperature. Furthermore, it was found that the catalyst showed a high activity for the acetalization reaction, affording over a 99% yield in all the cases investigated. Interestingly, the novel catalyst could be recovered in a facile manner from the reaction mixture and recycled five times without any significant loss in activity.