Vol:.(1234567890) Catal Lett (2017) 147:2640–2655 DOI 10.1007/s10562-017-2170-x 1 3 Thiophene Methanimine–Palladium Schiff Base Complex Anchored on Magnetic Nanoparticles: A Novel, Highly Efficient and Recoverable Nanocatalyst for Cross-Coupling Reactions in Mild and Aqueous Media γ-Fe 2 O 3 /AEPH 2 -TC-Pd Catalyzed Suzuki–Miyaura and Heck–Mizoroki Reactions Roya Jahanshahi 1  · Batool Akhlaghinia 1   Received: 8 June 2017 / Accepted: 14 August 2017 / Published online: 28 August 2017 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2017 Graphical Abstract Keywords γ-Fe 2 O 3 /AEPH 2 -TC-Pd · Sustainable chemistry · Magnetically separable nanocatalyst · Palladium–Schiff base complex · Suzuki–Miyaura · Heck– Mizoroki 1 Introduction Nowadays, novel approaches focus on development of more environmentally sustainable chemical processes in both aca- demic and industrial viewpoints [1]. One of the important criteria that support a chemical transformation in a move- ment toward the green chemistry, is utilizing the heterogene- ous catalytic systems instead of their homogeneous coun- terparts [2, 3]. Although homogeneous catalysts provide excellent activity and selectivity, they are encounter with the problems associated with catalyst separation, catalyst recy- cling and the contamination of the ligand or metal residue in the final products [4]. On the other hand, in spite of hav- ing substantial merits in terms of stability and reusability, heterogeneous catalysts have lower activity and selectivity Abstract In this study, a novel thiophene methanimine– palladium Schiff base complex anchored on decorated γ-Fe 2 O 3 with 2-aminoethyl dihydrogen phosphate (γ-Fe 2 O 3 / AEPH 2 -TC-Pd) was synthesized as a new magnetically sep- arable nanocatalyst. Characterization of the new designed nanocatalyst was performed successfully using different techniques such as FT-IR, XRD, XPS, TEM, TGA, VSM, ICP and elemental analysis. This nanocatalyst presented a superb catalytic activity for Suzuki–Miyaura and Heck–Miz- oroki cross-coupling reactions. The most important features of the prepared catalytic system which makes the current protocol more beneficial from both industrial and environ- mental viewpoints are its ease of recovery and reusability up to nine cycles without appreciable loss of the catalytic performance, as well as accomplishing the reactions under mild conditions in aqueous media which is a great challenge in some cross-coupling reactions. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10562-017-2170-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Batool Akhlaghinia akhlaghinia@um.ac.ir 1 Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad 9177948974, Iran