Palladium Nanoparticles Applied in Organic Synthesis as Catalytic Precursors

Palladium represents one of the most exploited catalysts in organic synthesis, mainly applied in versatile methods for the formation of C-C bonds, but also in selective double bonds hydrogenation and oxidation processes, founding numerous industrial applications in particular in fine chemicals production. In the last decade, the use of metallic nanoparticles in catalysis has exploded (ca. 5,200 contributions in the period 2000-March 2010) and specifically ca. 40% of the reported works corresponds to palladium applications. Despite this widespread synthetic use of palladium nanoparticles (PdNP), less than 200 contributions analyse the mechanism of the catalyzed process taking into account the involvement of PdNP. The present review deals with the applications of PdNP in organic synthesis, starting from well-defined materials as catalytic precursors which represent less than 400 reported contributions. The discussion is organized by the type of organic transformation, mainly focused on C-X bond formation, hydrogenation and oxidation reactions.