Facile and green solvothermal synthesis of palladium nanoparticle-nanodiamond-graphene oxide material with improved bifunctional catalytic properties

Abstract

We developed a selective solvothermal synthesis of palladium nanoparticles on nanodiamond (ND)–graphene oxide (GO) hybrid material in solution. After the GO and ND materials have been added in PdCl2 solution, the spontaneous redox reaction between the ND–GO and PdCl2 led to the creation of nanohybrid Pd@ND@GO material. The resulting Pd@ND@GO material was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometry, scanning electronic microscopy (SEM), and atomic absorption spectrometry methods. The Pd@ND@GO material has been used for the first time as a catalyst for the reduction for 2-nitrophenol and the degradation of methylene blue in the presence of NaBH4. GO plays the role of 2D support material for Pd nanoparticles, while NDs act as a nanospacer for partly preventing the re-stacking of the GO. The Pd@ND@GO material can lead to high catalytic activity for the reduction reaction of 2-nitrophenol and degradation of methylene blue with 100% conversion within ~15 s for these two reactions even when the content of Pd in it is as low as 4.6 wt%.