Facile synthesis of green and efficient copper-based magnetically recoverable nanocatalyst for the reduction of nitrophenol derivatives

Abstract

A green and facile preparation of CuO/SiO2@Fe3O4 nanocatalysts (CuO(G)/SiO2@Fe3O4 and CuO(L)/SiO2@Fe3O4) were developed using glucose and lactose as grafting agent to place copper oxide on the surface of the magnetic nanoparticles by hydrothermal method. The structure and morphology of the prepared nanocatalysts were identified using FT-IR. XRD, XPS, BET, VSM, TGA, EDX-Mapping, FE-SEM, HRTEM and ICP-OES analyses. The catalytic activity of nanocatalysts was investigated to reduce 4-nitrophenol, 2-nitrophenol, 3-nitroaniline and 4-nitroaniline compounds using the UV–Vis spectrum. In reducing 4-nitrophenol using CuO(G)/SiO2@Fe3O4 and CuO(L)/SiO2@Fe3O4, the apparent rate constant (Kapp) were obtained 0.38 and 0.28 min−1, and activity factors (k’) were 3251 and 1396 s−1 g−1, respectively. High conversion in a short time and good stability were the advantages of the prepared nanocatalysts. The magnetic nature of the catalysts makes them easily recoverable and easy to use in multiple cycles.