Synthesis of Polyester Amide by Carbonylation–Polycondensation Reaction Using Immobilized Palladium Metal Containing Ionic Liquid on SBA-15 as a Phosphine-Free Catalytic System Anilkumar Satapathy • Sandip T. Gadge • Etty N. Kusumawati • Kei Harada • Takehiko Sasaki • Daisuke Nishio-Hamane • Bhalchandra M. Bhanage Received: 14 January 2015 / Accepted: 23 January 2015 Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015 Abstract A novel and simple method for the synthesis of aromatic linear polyester amides has been developed by the carbonylation–polycondensation reaction of aromatic dii- odides and aminohydroxy compounds in the presence of ImmPd-IL@SBA-15 catalytic system. Polyester amides with moderate intrinsic viscosity were synthesized in excellent yields using the ImmPd-IL@SBA-15 catalyst and represents efficient heterogeneous and phosphine-free approach for the synthesis of various linear polyester amide derivatives. The ImmPd-IL@SBA-15 catalyst solves the basic problem of catalyst recovery and furnishes good to excellent yield of desired product within short reaction time. The recycled catalyst was characterized using the XPS and TEM analysis. The catalyst was recycled four times without significant loss in activity. Graphical Abstract Catalytic polyester amide synthesis Keywords Heterogeneous catalysis Á Carbonylation Á XPS Á Polyester amide Á Ligand-free Á Palladium 1 Introduction Aromatic linear polyester amides possess excellent thermal stability, heat resistance and gas barrier properties [1]. They show good thermal and mechanical properties due to the presence of strong intermolecular hydrogen bonding interactions present in the amide linkage. The polyester amides are conventionally synthesized by condensation reactions using aromatic diacids or their suitable deriva- tives such as acid chlorides [2–5]. These methods are stoichiometric and require thermally unstable, moisture sensitive and corrosive acid chloride as a starting material. These conventional condensation methods are suitable only if the appropriate diacid is easily available. Palladium catalyzed carbonylation–polycondensation is alternative A. Satapathy Á S. T. Gadge Á B. M. Bhanage (&) Department of Chemistry, Institute of Chemical Technology, N. Parekh Marg, Matunga, Mumbai 400019, India e-mail: bm.bhanage@gmail.com; bm.bhanage@ictmumbai.edu.in A. Satapathy Reliance Industries Limited, Patalganga, Rasayani, Raigad 410 220, Maharashtra, India E. N. Kusumawati Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, 5-1-5, Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8561, Japan K. Harada Á T. Sasaki Department of Complexity Science and Engineering, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 5-1-5, Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8561, Japan D. Nishio-Hamane Institute of Solid State Physics, The University of Tokyo, 5-1-5 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8581, Japan 123 Catal Lett DOI 10.1007/s10562-015-1489-4