Catalytic reduction of nitrophenols by a novel assembled nanocatalyst based on zerovalent copper-nanopolyaniline-nanozirconium silicate

Review on polyaniline-based nanocomposite heterogeneous catalysts for catalytic reduction of hazardous water pollutants

Water contamination by highly toxic substances has generated serious ecological disturbances and health problems for humans. Hence, decontamination of toxic pollutants using advanced, inexpensive, and eco-friendly approaches is the current demand. Heterogeneous catalyst-based catalytic reduction processes have offered the opportunity to transform hazardous water pollutants into non-hazardous products via sustainable, eco-friendly, and efficient routes and might be a competitive substitute for existing traditional water purification techniques. However, the key challenges linked with pure heterogeneous catalysts include agglomeration and poor dispersion, stability, recovery, and reusability, which result in poor activity and efficiency. Thus, it is essential to produce multipurpose polymer-based composite catalysts using conducting polymers, which are exceptionally good supportive and matrix materials. The blending of metal-based nanomaterials with polyaniline conducting polymers produces highly stable and efficient heterogeneous nanocomposite catalysts with amazing catalytic activity against a wide range of water pollutants. The heterogeneous catalytic reductive degradation of immensely toxic pollutant water has gained substantial curiosity because of its excellent physicochemical and surface characteristics, porous structure, recoverability, and recyclability. Therefore, this review presents the latest efforts to generate various polyaniline-based nanocomposite catalysts using a polyaniline matrix and various nanofiller materials and their potential applications in heterogeneous catalytic reduction degradation of water pollutants.

PLA/CS-ZnO bionanocomposite for rapid catalytic reduction of nitrophenol compounds as a heterogeneous nanocatalyst

In this research, a high efficiency and environmentally friendly method to reduce nitrophenol compounds such as 4-nitrophenol (4-NP), 2,4,6-trinitrophenol (2,4,6-TNP) and 2,4-dinitrophenol (2,4-DNP) was used in the presence of poly(lactic acid)/chitosan-ZnO ( PLA/CS-ZnO) bionanocomposite. Using FT-IR, SEM, XRD and UV-Vis techniques, PLA/CS-ZnO bionanocomposite was identified after synthesis. Also, the mechanical properties of the bionanocomposite were investigated using the stress-strain curve. The mentioned bionanocomposite showed a very good efficiency in reducing nitrophenol compounds to aminophenolic compounds, so that under optimal conditions, 100% conversion and selectivity in the reduction of 4-NP, 2,4,6-TNP and 2,4-DNP to 4-aminophenol (4-AP), 2,4,6-triaminophenol (2,4,6-TAP) and 2,4-diaminophenol (2,4-DAP) were observed. UV-Vis absorption spectrum at different times were used to evaluate the progress of the reaction. Furthermore, after the reaction, PLA/CS-ZnO was recovered and used for the next cycle. The results showed that the bionanocomposite can perform ten consecutive cycles without a significant decrease in efficiency. The comparison of catalytic activity with other catalysts showed that the bionanocomposite synthesized in the present research has a higher efficiency in reduction of nitrophenol compounds.

Palladium nanoparticles supported on ionic liquid and glucosamine-modified magnetic iron oxide as a catalyst in reduction reactions

A magnetic nanocomposite comprising imidazolium ionic liquid and glucosamine is successfully synthesized and used for stabilization of Pd nanoparticles. This new material, Fe₃O₄@SiO₂@IL/GA-Pd, is fully characterized and applied as a catalyst in the reduction of nitroaromatic compounds to desired amines at room temperature. Also, the reductive degradation of organic dyes such as methylene blue (MB), methyl orange (MO), and rhodamine B (RhB) is studied and compared with another previous publications. The survey of the stabilization of the palladium catalytic entities is described demonstrating the separation ability and recycling of them. In addition, TEM, XRD, and VSM analyses of the recycled catalyst confirmed its stability.

Nano-sized and microporous palladium catalyst supported on modified chitosan/cigarette butt composite for treatment of environmental contaminants

This study reports a versatile process for the fabrication of a microporous heterogeneous palladium nanocatalyst on a novel spherical, biodegradable, and chemically/physically resistant catalyst support consisting of chitosan (CS) and cigarette waste-derived activated carbon (CAC). The physicochemical properties of the microporous Pd-CS-CAC nanocatalyst developed were successfully determined by FTIR, XRD, FE-SEM, TEM, BET, and EDS techniques. TEM studies showed that the average particle size of the synthesized Pd NPs was about 30 nm. The catalytic prowess of microporous Pd-CS-CAC was evaluated in the reduction/decolorization of various nitroarenes (2-nitroaniline (2-NA), 4-nitroaniline (4-NA), 4-nitrophenol (4-NP), and 4-nitro-o-phenylenediamine (4-NPD)) and organic dyes (methyl red (MR), methyl orange (MO), methylene blue (MB), congo red (CR), and rhodamine B (RhB)) in an aqueous medium in the presence of NaBH₄ as the reducing agent at room temperature. The catalytic activities were studied by UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy of the supernatant at regular time intervals. The short reaction times, mild reaction conditions, high efficiency (100% conversion), easy separation, and excellent chemical stability of the catalyst due to its heterogeneity and reusability are the advantages of this method. The results of the tests showed that reduction/decolorization reactions were successfully carried out within 10-140 s due to the good catalytic ability of Pd-CS-CAC. Moreover, Pd-CS-CAC was reused for 5 consecutive times with no loss of the initial shape, size, and morphology, confirming that it was a sustainable and robust nanocatalyst.

Copper Oxide-Antimony Oxide Entrapped Alginate Hydrogel as Efficient Catalyst for Selective Reduction of 2-Nitrophenol

Copper oxide-antimony oxide (Cu₂O-Sb₂O₃) was prepared and entrapped inside Na-alginate hydrogel (Alg@Cu₂O-Sb₂O₃). The developed Alg@Cu₂O-Sb₂O₃ was used as catalytic reactor for the reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP), 2-nitrophenol (2-NP), 2,6-dinitrophenol (2,6-DNP), methyl orange (MO), congo red (CR), acridine orange (AO), methylene blue (MB) and potassium ferricyanide (K₃[Fe(CN)₆]). Alg@Cu₂O-Sb₂O₃ was found to be selective and more efficient for the reduction of 2-NP among all the pollutants. Therefore, 2-NP was selected for a detailed study to optimize various parameters, e.g., the catalyst amount, reducing agent concentration, 2-NP concentration and recyclability. Alg@Cu₂O-Sb₂O₃ was found to be very stable and easily recyclable for the reduction of 2-NP. The Alg@Cu₂O-Sb₂O₃ nanocatalyst reduced 2-NP in 1.0 min, having a rate constant of 3.8187 min⁻¹.

Efficient and fast degradation of 4-nitrophenol and detection of Fe(III) ions by Poria cocos extract stabilized silver nanoparticles

In this study, a simple and environment-friendly method has been successfully applied for the production of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) using Poria cocos extract. The reaction time of 60 min, the temperature of 90 °C, and silver ion concentration of 2.0 mM were identified as the best condition for the PC-AgNPs fabrication. The XRD analysis confirmed a highly crystalline face-centered cubic structure of the biosynthesized material. The PC-AgNPs were presented separately in a spherical shape with an average crystal size of 20 nm, as endorsed by the TEM and FE-SEM measurements. The presence and crucial role of biomolecules in stabilizing the nanoparticles were elucidated by FTIR, EDX, and DLS techniques. The prepared biogenic nanoparticles were further applied for the reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) and colorimetric detection of Fe³⁺ ions. The study results proved that PC-AgNPs exhibited superior catalytic activity and reusability in the conversion of 4-NP by NaBH₄. The complete reduction of 4-NP could be achieved in 10 min with the pseudo-first-order rate constant of 0.466 min^-1, and no significant performance loss was found when the material was reused five times. The colorimetric probe based on PC-AgNPs displayed outstanding sensitivity and selectivity towards Fe³⁺ ions with a detection limit of 1.5 μM in a linear range of 0-250 μM. Additionally, the applicability of the developed assay was explored for testing Fe³⁺ ions in tap water. PC-AgNPs have a great potential for further applications as a promising catalyst for reducing nitrophenols and biosensors for the routine monitoring of Fe³⁺ in water.

Effective reduction of nitrophenols and colorimetric detection of Pb(ii) ions by Siraitia grosvenorii fruit extract capped gold nanoparticles

This study presents a simple and green approach for the synthesis of Siraitia grosvenorii fruit extract capped gold nanoparticles (SG-AuNPs). The SG-AuNPs samples prepared under the optimized conditions were characterized by various techniques (UV-Vis, XRD, FTIR, HR-TEM, EDX, DLS). The biosynthesized nanoparticles were then studied for the reduction of 2-nitrophenol (2-NP) and 3-nitrophenols (3-NP) and for colorimetric detection of Pb2+ ions. The characterization results revealed that the crystals of SG-AuNPs were spherical with an average size of 7.5 nm. The FTIR and DLS analyses proved the presence of the biomolecule layer around AuNPs, which played an important role in stabilizing the nanoparticles. The SG-AuNPs showed excellent catalytic activity in the reduction of 3-NP and 2-NP, achieving complete conversion within 14 min. The catalytic process was endothermic and followed pseudo-first-order kinetics. The activation energy was determined to be 10.64 and 26.53 kJ mol-1 for 2-NP and 3-NP, respectively. SG-AuNPs maintained high catalytic performance after five recycles. The fabricated material was also found to be highly sensitive and selective to Pb2+ ions with the detection limit of 0.018 μM in a linear range of 0-1000 μM. The practicality of the material was validated through the analyses of Pb2+ in mimic pond water samples. The developed nanoparticles could find tremendous applications in environmental monitoring.

Removal of Cd(II) from water using zero valent iron/copper functionalized spent tea

Zero valent Fe/Cu functionalized spent tea adsorbent was prepared for the decontamination of Cd(II) contaminated water. The synthesized material was characterized for structural and morphological characteristics using various analytical techniques. The material was used as adsorbent for the adsorption of Cd(II) from aqueous solutions in batch study experiments. The effect of initial pH, adsorbent dosage, contact time and adsorbate concentration was investigated. The obtained data well followed the Langmuir adsorption isotherm model and pseudo-second order rate model with maximum adsorption capacity of 89.686 mg·g^-1. Based on Langmuir separation factor (R), having a value of 0.706-0.194, the adsorption process was confirmed to be favorable. The adsorbent was used in the form of a column for the sorption of Cd(II) from a running solution with satisfactory results. The spent material was regenerated and reutilized with reduction of adsorption capacity by 1.48% only. Overall, the current adsorbent can be efficiently utilized for the removal of aqueous Cd(II).