Continuous-flow system for loading and refining metal-supported nanofibers toward scalable production

Abstract

Nanocatalysts play a significant role in various valuable reactions, but their scalable production is constrained by the cumbersome and laborious washing in refining after loading active metals species. This work firstly presented a universal continuous-flow washing for simplifying the washing protocol based on the size-matching principle. With pore-size-selected filter membranes, excessive or weakly anchored metal species can be moved away during liquid flow, while the solid nanofibers were efficiently collected. Secondly, to break through the volume limitations of the mixing kettle and realize scalable production, a home-made integrated loading-washing device was well-designed and combined the loading and washing procedures at one time. This device allowed liquid to flow through the supports, where metal species were loaded on while the excessive metal species were carried away. The optimized protocol increased the catalyst output per unit time from 10 mg/h to 500 mg/h, without losing catalytic activity and stability. This work provides a fresh idea for achieving the scalable production of nanocatalysts from the perspective of simplifying the loading and refining.