An environmentally friendly silica‐grafted nicotine‐based palladium(II) complex was successfully prepared and evaluated for the first time as novel and efficient nanocatalyst in C‐C bond forming reactions. Grafted‐nicotine in this catalytic system plays an important role, and as an effective ligand and a quaternary ammonium salt demonstrates an efficient stabilizing effect on the Pd(II) species by a synergistic effect of coordination and electrostatic interactions. The catalyst was well characterized by FT‐IR, CHN, XRD, TEM, SEM–EDX, ICP and TG analysis, and demonstrated a highly efficient catalytic activity in the reaction system under phosphine‐free and low Pd loading conditions, and the coupled products were produced in good to excellent yields. Furthermore, the catalyst can be easily recovered and reused without a significant loss of activity. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.