Production of bacterial nanocellulose (BNC) and its application as a solid support in transition metal catalysed cross-coupling reactions

Bacterial 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 wt%, 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.