JOURNAL OF HAZARDOUS MATERIALS, vol.369, pp.96-107, 2019 (SCI-Expanded)
We reported the improved catalytic property of Pd (0) nanoparticles decorated on amine-functionalized graphene nanosheets (Pd/GNS-NH2) for the hydrogenation of nitrophenol derivatives in the presence of NaBH4 at moderate conditions. Pd/GNS-NH2 nanocatalyst was synthesized by the deposition-reduction method. Sundry techniques such as ICP-OES, P-XRD, XPS, TEM, HR-TEM and EDX have been applied to explain the structure and morphology of the Pd/GNS-NH2 nanocatalyst. The results show that the Pd (0) nanoparticles are perfectly dispersed on the surface of the GNS-NH2 support material (d(mean) = 1.38-2.63 nm). The catalytic activity of the Pd/GNS-NH2 nanocatalyst was tested in the hydrogenation of nitrophenol derivatives in water in the presence of NaBH4 as reductant and the excellent activity of nanocatalyst have been detected against 2-nitrophenol, 4nitrophenol, 2,4-dinitrophenol and 2,4,6-trinitrophenol derivatives with 116.8, 65.9, 42.8 and 11.4 min(-1) initial TOF values, respectively. Another important point is that the nanocatalyst has very high reusability performance (at 5th reuse between 71.5 and 91.5%) for the hydrogenation of nitrophenols. Finally, catalytic studies have been carried out at various temperatures to calculate the E-a, Delta H-not equal and Delta S-not equal.