Fe3O4@SiO2 nanoparticles-supported Cu(II) complex: An efficient and reusable nanocatalyst for treating environmental pollutants in aqueous medium

Abstract

The present research aims to design and produce a unique and magnetically rectifiable catalyst through immobilizing copper(II) over the Fe3O4@SiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) surface. The fabricated catalysts were determined as VSM, EDS, XRD, FT-IR, TG-DTG, and FESEM procedures. The prepared catalyst demonstrated superior catalytic performance in the reduction of Cr(VI) and 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) and degradation of organic dyes like methylene blue (MB) and congo red (CR) in aqueous media. Remarkable attributes of this method are high efficiency, removal of a homogeneous catalyst, easy recovery from the reaction mixture, and uncomplicated route. The amount of activity in this catalytic system after several stages of recovery and reuse was almost constant. In general, NaBH4 induced degradation/reduction of MB, CR, and 4-NP, and formic acidinduced reduction of chromium(VI) to chromium(III) catalyzed with prepared catalyst within a very short time. Moreover, compared to related research, this catalyst showed less reaction time.