Graphene oxide nanosheets were applied as a support for Pd nanoparticles in Hiyama reaction of various aryl halides and triethoxyphenylsilane to generate biaryl derivatives in aqueous conditions. Addition of surfactant during the catalysis caused a significant increase in yields of products through well-exfoliation of Pd-NP-GO. Among various studied surfactants, P123 showed superior activity rather to other surfactants, SDS and CTAB. This heterogeneous catalytic system has attained the advantages of being non-toxic, available, recyclable, ligand-free, and compatible to reaction medium. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.