Pd1/CeO2 single-atom catalyst for alkoxycarbonylation of aryl iodides

Heterogenization of the homogeneous catalysis has been studied for almost 50 years. Single-atom catalysis has the advantages of both homo- and heterogeneous catalysis. It has been proposed, and subsequently experimentally verified that single-atom catalysis is able to bridge homo- and heterogeneous catalysis, thus providing a new avenue to realize the heterogenization of homogeneous catalysis. Alkoxycarbonylation of aryl halides is an effective method for the direct synthesis of carboxylic acid derivatives, and is commonly catalyzed by Pd-based homogeneous complexes with N/P-containing ligands and organic/inorganic base. Herein, we firstly reported that Pd1/CeO2 single-atom catalyst showed good performance in the alkoxycarbonylation of aryl iodides reaction. Under base-free and ligand-free conditions, Pd1/CeO2 single-atom catalyst can transfer different aryl iodides to corresponding products. The catalyst can be easily recovered and reused four times without significant loss of reactivity.