Golden Carbon Nanotube Membrane for Continuous Flow Catalysis

Abstract

In this work, a high-performance catalytic membrane, composed of ultrasmall gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) and high aspect-ratio carbon nanotubes (CNTs), was designed for the continuous-flow catalytic reactions. In this hybrid catalytic membrane, the Au core of the NCs serves as high-performance catalyst, and the ligand of the NCs plays two key roles: (1) as a well-defined surfactant assembly to effectively dissolve CNTs in aqueous solution and (2) as an efficient protecting ligand for Au core to avoid agglomeration. Due to the above-mentioned features, a homogeneous 3D self-support catalytic membrane can be readily fabricated by vacuum filtration of the hybrid AuNCs/CNTs. The catalytic activity of the as-designed catalytic membrane was evaluated using 4-nitrophenol hydrogenation as a model catalytic reaction. The data suggest that the continuous flow catalytic reactor could achieve complete conversion of the substrate (i.e., 4-nitrophenol) within a single flow through the membrane with a hydraulic residence t...