Fe3O4@RGO@Au@C Composite with Magnetic Core and Au Enwrapped in Double-Shelled Carbon: An Excellent Catalyst in the Reduction of Nitroarenes and Suzuki–Miyaura Cross-Coupling

Magnetic core double-shelled carbon with Fe3O4 nanoparticles as the core, reduced graphene oxide (RGO) as the inner shell and carbon (C) layer as the outer shell, have been successfully designed and prepared. This tailor-making structure acts as an excellent capsule for encapsulating Au nanoparticles (Au NPs), which could effectively prevent Au NPs from aggregation and leaching. Because of its structural features, magnetic coredouble-shell Fe3O4@RGO@Au@C architecture exhibits extremely high catalytic performance on two different kinds of organic reactions (1) reduction of nitroarenes, and (2) Suzuki–Miyaura cross coupling of phenyl boronic acid with aryl halides. Moreover, the synthesized catalyst can be easily recovered and reused for at least ten cycles due to its magnetically separable feature and good stability.