A novel 5,17-di(hydrazinecarbonyl) tetranitrooxacalix[4]arene (DHOC) derivative has been synthesized and characterized using various spectroscopic techniques. This DHOC derivative has been used to produce water-dispersible catalytically active Pd nanoparticles (PdNps). In the nanoparticle synthesis, DHOC serves as both a reducing and a stabilizing agent, thus simplifying the preparation of the PdNps because no separate reagents are required to reduce and stabilize the nanoparticles. These PdNps were characterized by a number of techniques such as Transmission Electron Microscopy and UV-Visible spectroscopy. The water-dispersible PdNps were 5 +/- A 2 nm in size and showed high catalytic activity in numerous C-C coupling reactions such as the Sonogashira, Suzuki-Miyuara and Heck reactions. [GRAPHICS]