Construction of magnetic Fe2O3-Decorated electroactive Poly(amic acid) composites as recyclable Catalysts: Increased loading of gold Nanoparticles, Controlled Size, and Accelerated catalytic reduction of 4-Nitrophenol

Abstract

Nanocomposites are widely used in heterogeneous catalysts in the field of water treatment, which exhibit controllable structural advantages and synergistic effects between their components further enhancing catalytic activity. In the current research, we developed the Au nanoparticles immobilized magnetic γ-Fe2O3/Electroactive Poly (amic acid) composite (6Au/EPAA-Fe2O3) prepared by using the in-situ redox reaction strategy. Sundry techniques such as FT-IR, XRD, TGA, SEM/HR-TEM, CV, and XPS analysis have been applied to explain the chemical structure and morphology of as-synthesized composites. The catalytic performance of the catalyst during the reduction of 4-nitrophenol using NaBH4 as a hydrogen donor was assessed in an aqueous medium at room temperature. Attractively, 6Au/EPAA-Fe2O3 composite exhibits superior catalytic performance, which completes the reduction of 4-NP within the 50 s. The pseudo-first-order kinetic rate constants were estimated as 3.0 × 10-2 s−1 for the reduction of 4-NP. Furthermore, the 6Au/EPAA-Fe2O3 composite has excellent stability and reproducibility of 10 consecutive runs by using an external magnet without loss of catalytic activity.