One-Pot Green Synthesis of AgNPs@RGO for Removal of Water Pollutant and Chemical Fixation of CO2 Under Mild Reaction Conditions

Abstract

Silver nanoparticles with large surface area and surface available atoms provide promising opportunities to deal with the challenges in catalysis and environmental remediation. Herein, silver nanoparticles impregnated reduced graphene oxide (AgNPs@RGO) is synthesized through the in-situ reduction process using green guava fruit extract as a reducing agent. The synthesized materials are characterized by multiple characterization tools such as FTIR, XRD, UV–Vis, XPS, Raman, FESEM and TEM studies. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic (XPS) result has confirmed the in-situ reduction of GO and Ag+ ions to RGO and Ago, respectively. Morphological studies like FESEM and TEM have suggested well dispersion of AgNPs onto the RGO sheets. The synthesized material showed improved efficiency for the catalytic reduction of water-pollutant like p-nitrophenol. Here, the catalyst works as a hydrogen transport. The AgNPs@RGO material also showed efficient catalytic activity for terminal alkyne carboxylation up to 98.5% of product yield. The catalyst is reusable for multiple reaction cycles for both the studied reactions.