Journal of Molecular Catalysis A: Chemical 204–205 (2003) 755–762 Functional resins as innovative supports for catalytically active metal nanoclusters B. Corain a,∗ , P. Centomo a , S. Lora b , M. Kralik c a Dipartimento di Chimica Inorganica Metallorganica Analitica, Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologie Molecolari, C.N.R., Sezione di Padova, Via Marzolo 1, 35131 Padova, Italy b Istituto per la Sintesi Organica e la Fotoreattivitá, C.N.R., Via Romea 4, 35020 Legnaro, Italy c Department of Organic Technology, Slovak University of Technology, Radlinskeho 9, 81237 Bratislava 1, Slovak Republic Received 5 August 2002; received in revised form 7 February 2003; accepted 20 February 2003 Dedicated to Professor Renato Ugo on the occasion of his 65th birthday Abstract Functional resins are plausible candidates for supporting catalytically active metal nanoclusters alternative, or complemen- tary to conventional supports such as amorphous carbon, metal oxides, zeolites. Mechanical and thermal stabilities are fair and perfectly suitable to application in the realm of fine chemistry. The polymer framework turns out to be a designable template for controlling nanoclusters size and size distributions. © 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Metal catalysis; Functional resins; Palladium; Metal nanoclusters; Innovative supports 1. Introduction Supported metal catalysis is a pivotal tool in mod- ern chemical industry [1–3]. With the remarkable exception of amorphous carbon, currently employed supports are inorganic materials and the traditional role attributed to the supports is the dispersion and stabilization of metal nanoclusters systems de- puted to the electronic activation of the employed reagents. However, in recent years the chemical role of the support as a tool for controlling both over- all reactivity and selectivity [4] started to become more and more apparent to such an extent to let the ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +39-049-827-5737; fax: +39-049-827-5223. E-mail address: benedetto.corain@unipd.it (B. Corain). support be considered a real promoter of catalytic efficiency [5]. A little group of industrial synthetic technologies [6,7] illustrate the ability of organic resins to act as efficient supports able to exploit the fine chemical ac- tion of supported metal nanoclusters towards multi- functional catalysis. We have been exploring in the last 10 years [8] the potential role of functional organic supports in the design of innovative catalysts. In this connection, we like to stress that new-generation resins-based metal catalysts might well be economically conve- nient in the realm of fine and speciality chemicals [9] and a first-sight complexity of a novel unconven- tional catalyst has to be judged in the appropriate context. In fact, in conventional supported metal catalysts, the support is typically an inorganic microphase with 1381-1169/$ – see front matter © 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S1381-1169(03)00361-3