A novel Heck reaction catalyzed by Co hollow nanospheres in ligand-free condition.

Heck reaction catalyzed by cobalt hollow nanospheres has been developed; the coupling of alkenes with aryl iodide or aryl bromide in the presence of potassium carbonate provides the corresponding products with moderate to good yields, which reveals obvious advantages such as low-cost catalyst, ligand-free condition, the recyclability of the catalyst and simple experimental operation.