Please cite this article as: S. Jeremic, L. Djokic, V. Ajdačić, et al., Production of bacterial nanocellulose (BNC) and its application as a solid support in transition metal catalysed cross-coupling reactions, International Journal of Biological Macromolecules, https://doi.
AbstractBacterial nanocellulose (BNC) emerged as an attractive advanced biomaterial that provides desirable properties such as high strength, lightweight, tailorable surface chemistry, hydrophilicity, and biodegradability.BNC was successfully obtained from a wide range of carbon sources including sugars derived from grass biomass using Komagataeibacter medellinensis ID13488 strain with yields up to 6 g L -1 in static fermentation. Produced BNC was utilized in straightforward catalyst preparation as a solid support for two different transition metals, palladium and copper with metal loading of 20 and 3 weight %, respectively. Sustainable catalysts were applied in the synthesis of valuable fine chemicals, such as biphenyl-4-amine and 4'fluorobiphenyl-4-amine, used in drug discovery, perfumes and dye industries with excellent product yields of up to 99%. Pd/BNC catalyst was reused 4 times and applied in two consecutive reactions, Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reaction followed by hydrogenation of nitro to amino group while Cu/BNC catalyst was examined in Chan-Lam coupling reaction.Overall, the environmentally benign process of obtaining nanocellulose from biomass, followed by its utilisation as a solid support in metal-catalysed reactions and its recovery has been described. These findings reveal that BNC is a good support material, and it can be used as a support for different catalytic systems.