Palladium nanoparticles supported on multı-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) for the catalytic hexavalent chromium reduction

Abstract

Chromium (VI) is widely accepted as an acute toxic contaminant in living ecosystems, while the trivalent Chromium form (III) is thought to be an important element for living beings. This study showed that zero palladium (Pd0) metal nanoparticles supported onto a multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) catalyst (Pd@MWCNT) effectively catalyzed the reduction reaction of Chromium (VI) to Chromium (III) using HCOOH (formic acid) as a reducing agent. The catalyst (Pd@MWCNT) was prepared reproducibly in the aqueous mixture at room conditions through the impregnation-reduction technique and identified using some analytical characterization techniques (HRTEM, DR/UV–vis, TEM-EDX, TEM, XPS, ICP-OES, and P-XRD). The results of the characterization studies show that the palladium(0) nanoparticles (demean = 2.20 ± 0.25 nm) are very well dispersed onto the MWCNT support material surface. The stability and activity of catalytic performance of Pd(0) metal nanoparticles were investigated in the reactions of Chromium (VI) to Chromium (III) in HCOOH solution. The results show that the Pd@MWCNT catalyst exhibited excellent activity (TOF = 281 mol Cr2O72−/mol Pd min), even after 5 times of reuse (<86%) in the reduction reaction of Chromium (VI) to Chromium (III) at 298K. In addition, this study includes very rich kinetic data depending on [Pd@MWCNT], [HCOOH], [HCOONa], [Cr2O72−] concentrations and temperature parameters to determine the nature of the reduction rate and activation parameters of Cr(VI) catalyzed by Pd@MWCNT nanocatalyst in the formic acid medium as a reducing agent.