Immobilizing highly catalytically active Ni particles inside carbon matrix for enhanced photocatalytic degradation

Abstract

Herein, we report a generalized strategy for the controlling synthesis of highly crystalline Ni particles embedded in a carbon matrix by the controlled thermolysis temperature and added auxiliary carbon source in coordination polymer (CPs). Firstly, a new Ni-based CP, namely, [Ni(3-padpm)(1,3-BDC)(H2O)] (Ni-CP, 3-padpm = 4,4′-bis(3-pyridylformamide)diphenylmethane and 1,3-H2BDC = 1,3-benzenedicarboxylic acid) has been synthesized and serves as a precursor to prepared single phase, crystalline metal and metal oxide particles, which are inherently passivated in the carbon matrix (which are denoted as Ni-CP-X, X = 500, 600, 700, 800, 900, 1000). Then, in order to achieve more purity and superior catalytic performances, we have selected fulvic acid (FA) as the highly active antioxidant to prepare carbon-coated pure metal materials (which are denoted as Ni-CP@FA-X). Finally, the properties of dye photocatalytic degradation by Ni-CP, Ni-CP-X and Ni-CP@FA-X have been also comparatively investigated in detail and show that the highest photocatalytic degradation rates were 99.51% for MB, 100% for RhB, 100% for GV, 97.33% for MO, and 90.48% for CR after 4 h. In addition, Ni-CP@FA-1000 shows stable catalytic efficiencies after five reaction cycles.