AgPd Nanoparticles Deposited on WO2.72 Nanorods as an Efficient Catalyst for One-Pot Conversion of Nitrophenol/Nitroacetophenone into Benzoxazole/Quinazoline

We report a seed-mediated growth of 2.3 nm AgPd nanoparticles (NPs) in the presence of 40 × 5 nm WO2.72 nanorods (NRs) for the synthesis of AgPd/WO2.72 composites. The strong interactions between AgPd NPs and WO2.72 NRs make the composites, especially the Ag48Pd52/WO2.72, catalytically active for dehydrogenation of formic acid (TOF = 1718 h–1 and Ea = 31 kJ/mol) and one-pot reactions of formic acid, 2-nitrophenol, and aldehydes into benzoxazoles in near quantitative yields under mild conditions. The catalysis can also be extended to the one-pot reactions of ammonium formate, 2-nitroacetophenone, and aldehyde for high yield syntheses of quinazolines. Our studies demonstrate a new catalyst design to achieve a green chemistry approach to one-pot reactions for the syntheses of benzoxazoles and quinazolines.