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1610918 
Journal Article 
Synthesis of liquid crystals using Suzuki-Miyaura coupling reactions using mesoporous, ligand-free Pd/Si(3)N(4) catalysts in aqueous media 
Kitney, SP; Cheng, Fei; Khan, S; Hope, CN; Mcnab, W; Kelly, SM 
2011 
1 
Liquid Crystals
ISSN: 0267-8292 
38 
8 
1027-1033 
WOS:000295316500012 
We report a ligand-free Pd/Si(3)N(4) catalysed Suzuki Miyaura aryl-aryl cross-coupling reaction using mixtures of water-miscible solvents, such as
dimethoxyethane, ethanol and isopropanol with water and several bases, such as sodium carbonate
and potassium phosphate. The reaction time and catalyst concentration were optimised and the
heterogeneous nature of the reaction was investigated. The optimised reaction conditions were
used to synthesise a standard liquid crystal using environmentally friendly solvents and a Pd/Si
(3)N(4) catalyst. This reaction is scalable to produce larger quantities. 
synthesis; nematics; heterogeneous catalysis; mesoporous silicon nitride