Abstract
Use of natural wool fiber supports in the fabrication of novel composite materials incorporating metal nanoparticles, which offer the possibility of “environmentally friendly” catalytic materials, has been investigated. The catalytic hydrogenation of cyclohexene to cyclohexane by palladium nanoparticles immobilized on wool (Pd/wool) was studied using moderate pressure of pure hydrogen gas. The performance of wool-supported catalysts was explored over a palladium nanoparticle loading ranging from 1.6 to 2.6 wt %. The effect of the catalytic testing conditions, including stirring rate, amount of reactants, gas pressure, and target temperature were explored. A systematic series of catalytic-activity tests carried out at 400 psi H2 for 5 and 24 h reaction times at 40 °C using a stirring rate 750 rpm allowed us to identify differences in performance within the series of Pd/wool nanocatalysts studied. The most catalytically active samples contained Pd nanoparticles with average sizes of ca. 5 nm located predominantly on the surface and within the topmost layer of wool fibers, making them more accessible to the reactants.
Highlights
Wool fibers and wool textiles offer interesting natural support material for capturing noble metal nanoparticles, notably palladium and gold, onto the surface to provide wool–nanoparticle composites for catalysis applications
It was hypothesized that the catalytic activity of palladium nanoparticles immobilized on wool (Pd/wool) would likely depend on the nature and distribution of the palladium nanoparticles in the Pd/wool-fiber nanocatalysts, the stirring rate, amounts of reactants, gas pressure, and target temperature
This study investigated the catalytic activity of Pd/wool nanocatalysts with Pd-nanoparticle loadings from 1.56 to 6.4 wt % whilst controlling the stirring rate, pressure, and target temperature
Summary
Wool fibers and wool textiles offer interesting natural support material for capturing noble metal nanoparticles, notably palladium and gold, onto the surface to provide wool–nanoparticle composites for catalysis applications. The naturally porous structure of wool fibers can facilitate hosting of such metal nanoparticles These attributes provide an interesting opportunity to create and demonstrate palladium nanoparticle–wool composite fiber and textile materials as potential catalysts wherein the wool fibers provide the natural substrate. It has long been known that noble metals can act as active and selective catalysts in many applications, but their industrial utility as bulk materials is diminished by their high cost and low surface area [3]. Natural supports that incorporate nanosized metal particles could possibly be suitable as environmentally friendly substrates for a new generation of heterogeneous catalysts, provided the support material is sufficiently robust to stand the operational conditions of the catalytic reaction. Nanosized metal particles supported onto such substrates are promising potentially catalytically active systems, in which catalytic properties could be tailored by both the nature and size of the metal nanoparticles and the support material [14]
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