A novel synthesis of β-CD@SA@Ag composite hydrogel microspheres with high catalytic activity and environmental adaptability

Abstract

The composite of hydrogels and noble metal nanoparticles has wide applications in the field of functional materials. In this paper, we developed a novel and green strategy to synthesize a kind of composite hydrogel microspheres containing silver nanoparticles and β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) modified sodium alginate (β-CD@SA@Ag) without use of strong reducing reagent. First, β-CD was chemical linked to SA by epichlorohydrin (ECH) to form the β-CD modified polymer (β-CD@SA). then AgNO3 was added to the as-prepared polymer solution, in which silver nanoparticles were formed by the reducing power of β-CD units. Subsequently, by reversed-phase emulsion method and ionic cross-linking, a kind of β-CD@SA@Ag hydrogel microspheres were obtained. The structure and morphology of the composite material were characterized in detail by Fourier infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), thermogravimetric analysis (TG), scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Test data indicated that silver nanoparticles evenly dispersed in the composite material. On the basis, the adsorption and catalytic performances of the β-CD@SA@Ag hydrogel microspheres were studied towards to the reduction of aromatic nitro compounds. Research results showed that the β-CD@SA@Ag hydrogel microspheres had excellent catalytic activity along with high environmental adaptability. whether in pure water, tap water or river water, aromatic nitro compounds can be completely reduced within 2–13 min. Moreover, the morphology of microspheres of the composite material endows the composite material with high stability and reusability. We believe that our work would provide a new idea for the green synthesis of organic-inorganic composite functional materials.