Facile Synthesis of Ag–γ-Fe2O3 Superior Nanocomposite for Catalytic Reduction of Nitroaromatic Compounds and Catalytic Degradation of Methyl Orange

Abstract

A facile synthetic route for preparing silver-doped maghemite (Ag–γ-Fe2O3) nanocomposite via a modified co-precipitation method was developed. The prepared magnetic nanocomposite was characterized by means of thermal analysis, transmission electron microscope, X-Ray diffraction, vibrating sample magnetometer and Fourier transform infrared techniques. The characterization results showed that the prepared Ag–γ-Fe2O3 nanocomposite is nanocrystalline and 6–8 nm in size with superparamagnetic behavior. The synthesized Ag–γ-Fe2O3 nanocomposite showed exceptional catalytic activities towards reduction of nitroaromatic compounds with specific activities parameters of 1441.7 and 904.2 s− 1 gAg−1 for both 4-nitrophenol and 2-nitroaniline, respectively. Besides, it shows a superior activity for catalytic degradation of methyl orange. All the three catalytic reactions were carried out in aqueous medium at room temperature and in the presence of reducing agent NaBH4. The magnetic behavior of the synthesized Ag–γ-Fe2O3 enables the ease of separation of the nanocomposite from the reaction medium for further reuse.