Title
Highly Porous Ru/C and Cu/C Nanocatalysts Derived from Custard Apple for Rapid and Selective Reduction of p-Nitrophenol
Authors
Mayakrishnan Gopiraman,a,b Muniyandi Muneeswaranc and Ick Soo Kim*a
aNano Fusion Technology Research Group, Division of Frontier Fibers, Institute for Fiber Engineering (IFES), Interdisciplinary Cluster for Cutting Edge Research (ICCER), Shinshu University, Tokida 3-15-1, Ueda, Nagano Prefecture 386-8567, Japan
bDepartment of Applied Bioscience, College of Life & Environment Science, Konkuk University, 120 Neungdong-ro, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul 05029, South Korea
cAdvanced Materials Laboratory, Mechanical Engineering, University of Chile, Beauchef 851, Santiago, Chile
*Corresponding Author Email Address : kim@shinshu-u.ac.jp, kimicksoo.gr@gmail.com (I.S. Kim)
Article History
Publishing Details: Received: 6th April 2019, Revised: 16th May 2019, Accepted: 17th May 2019, Published: 20th May 2019
Cite this article
Gopiraman M.; Muneeswaran M.; Kim I. S. Highly Porous Ru/C and Cu/C Nanocatalysts Derived from Custard Apple for Rapid and Selective Reduction of p-Nitrophenol. Nano Prog., 2019, 1(1), 30-36.
Abstract
Nanocatalysts derived from biomass have huge attention due to its positive environmental effects. In the present study, Ru/C and Cu/C nanocatalysts were successfully prepared by using custard apple and metal salts, and the obtained nanocatalysts were employed for the reduction of 4-nitrophenol in water. The Ru/C and Cu/C nanocatalyst were characterized by means of Scanning electron microscope-energy dispersive spectroscope (SEM-EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) and Raman. SEM-EDS spectra of nanocatalysts confirmed the successful loading and wt% of Ru or Cu in nanocatalysts. An excellent BET surface area of 899.15 and 651.78 cm2 g-1 was determined for the Cu/C and Ru/C, respectively. The presence of defect sites (ID/IG ratio) was calculated by Raman analysis. XPS confirmed the chemical state of Cu in Cu/C (+2) and Ru in Ru/C (+4). To our delight, the prepared Cu/C and Ru/C showed superior catalytic activity in 4-nitrophenol reduction reaction. The Ru/C and Cu/C demonstrated an excellent 100% conversion of 4-nitropheonl to 4-aminophenol in very short reaction time. Moreover, it was confirmed that the nanocatalysts are highly active and reusable. It can be reused at least 5 times without significant loss in its yield.
Keywords
Custard apple; Activated carbon; Metal nanoparticles; Nanocomposites; Reduction reaction; Reusability