Belt‐Like Cobalt Phosphate Tetrahydrate as the Non‐Noble Metal Catalyst with Enhanced Catalytic Reduction Activity

Abstract

AbstractIn this work, the belt‐like cobalt phosphate tetrahydrate (Co−P‐HT) was successfully synthesized by the hydrothermal method without adopting template and complicated manipulation. To the best of our knowledge, the as‐prepared Co−P based materials were used as heterogeneous catalysts to catalytic reduction of organic molecules (e. g., 4‐nitrophenol) at room temperature for the first time. Especially, the Co−P‐HT exhibited enhanced catalytic reduction activity by about 3.59 times higher than that of the plate‐like cobalt phosphate octahydrate (Co−P‐RT). Moreover, Co−P‐HT also exhibited excellent catalytic activity than some noble metal‐containing materials. In addition, the Co−P‐HT could maintain its enhanced catalytic activity after the four successive catalytic test, further confirming the stability of this material. The characterization results demonstrated that the as‐prepared Co−P based materials presented distinguishable physicochemical properties, such as different chemical compositions, morphologies, coordination environments and the ability of electrons transfer and distribution. Besides, a formation mechanism of Co−P‐HT was purposed in which this material could be obtained from Co−P‐RT. The Co−P‐HT could be considered as the potential catalyst to substitute some cobalt‐based and noble metal‐containing materials in mild conditions.