Mesoporous H-ZSM-5 nanocrystals with programmable number of acid sites as "solid ligands" to activate Pd nanoparticles for C–C coupling reactions

In this work, we described a proof-of-concept method to promote the activity and selectivity of Pd nanoparticles for heterogeneous catalysis (exemplified by C–C coupling reactions) by using acid sites within a zeolite framework. The Pd nanoparticles were encapsulated inside the crystalline walls of mesoporous H-ZSM-5 leading to hybrid samples (denoted as Pd@mZ-x-H) with controlled number of acid sites. A linear relationship between the number of acid sites of the zeolite nanocrystals and the catalytic activities of the Pd nanoparticles in organic reactions was established. Moreover, the shape-dependent selectivity of Pd@mZ-x-H was not sacrificed when the final activity was enhanced.