Plant tannin used as stabiliser for palladium nanoparticles in selective hydrogenation of quinoline
There are pros and cons to both homogeneous and heterogeneous catalytic strategies but one way you could get the best of both worlds is to use aqueous-organic biphasic catalysis. This approach hasn’t been widely utilised so far due to interfacial resistance between the phases which restricts catalytic activity.
Researchers in China have overcome this by using tannins from Black Wattle (an acacia tree species). The amphiphilicity of the tannins stabilise catalytic palladium nanoparticles enabling them to catalyse reactions in the organic phase whilst remaining in the aqueous phase for subsequent re-use, without loss of activity.
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