Biogenic palladium nanoclusters supported on hybrid nanocomposite 2-hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin/alginate as a recyclable catalyst in aqueous medium

Abstract

This paper develops a simple and green process of synthesizing palladium nanoclusters (PdNCs) capped on the hybrid nanocomposite based on biodegradable polysaccharides, 2-hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin (HPCD) and alginate (Alg) through an ionotropic gelation mechanism. PdNCs were biosynthesized from aqueous extract of Burdock root (BR), Arctium lappa. The nanocomposite PdNCs/HPCD/Alg was characterized by techniques like UV–Vis, FTIR, EDX, FESEM, TEM, HR-TEM and TG-DTA. The crystal palladium nanoparticles were found to distribute in cluster shape with a size of 4–10nm. EDX data showed that average amount of palladium capped on the hybrid nanocomposite was approx. 4.7% (w/w). PdNCs/HPCD/Alg exhibited highly catalytic activity for degradation of pollutants including 4-nitrophenol, methyl orange and rhodamine B in wastewater and leaching mechanism of the nanocatalyst was showed. In particular, the nanocomposite showed excellent aqueous-phase catalytic performance for free-triphenylphosphine Sonogashira cross-coupling reaction. The nanocatalyst could be efficiently reused without much compromising with its activity.