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Fabrication of recyclable magnetic Fe3O4–SiO2–Cu2O/Cu core–shell nano-catalyst for high-efficient reduction of aromatic nitro compound

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Abstract

Magnetic core–shell nanomaterial Fe3O4–SiO2–Cu2O/Cu was first successfully synthesized using an economical strategy. Using Fe3O4 as a magnetic center for easy recycling and SiO2 as the connecting layer, Cu elements were evenly and steadily distributed on the surface of the Fe3O4–SiO2–Cu2O/Cu core–shell nanostructure. The magnetic catalyst performed outstanding catalytic reduction activity for 4-nitrophenol (4-NP), and the complete catalytic reduction of 4-NP was achieved within only 5 min. What’s more, the catalyst could be well recycled, and the catalytic efficiency remained more than 90% after being reused 24 times.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 21605084), the Natural Science Foundation for Young Scholars of Jiangsu Province, China (Grant No. BK20160983), and supported by Research Start-up Funds for Talent Scholars of Nanjing Tech University (No. 39837104).

Funding

The funding was provided by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No: 21605084)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, No. 30 Puzhu Road (S), Nanjing, 211816, China

    Shanshan Sun, Zihao Zhang, Shuhan Li, Jinxun Le, Haixia Qian, Xiaoshuang Yin, Ying Liu, Wenzhong Yang & Yun Chen

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Contributions

SS: Investigation, Data curation, Writing—review & editing. ZZ: Investigation, Data curation, Writing—original draft. SL: Investigation, Data curation. JL: Data curation, Writing—original draft. HQ: Investigation, Data curation. XY: Formal analysis. YL: Supervision. WY: Supervision, Visualization. YC: Conceptualization, Methodology, Funding acquisition. The authors confirm that they agree to submit the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Yun Chen.

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10853_2023_8377_MOESM1_ESM.doc

Supplementary file 1. The synthesis of Fe3O4 and Fe3O4-SiO2 are shown in the supporting information. Fig. S1 SEM images of (a) Fe3O4, (b) Fe3O4-SiO2 and (c) Fe3O4-SiO2-Cu2O/Cu composite. Fig. S2 (a) XRD, (b) FT-IR, (c) XPS full spectrum, (d) XPS local magnification spectrum of Cu 2p and (e) SEM of Fe3O4-SiO2-Cu2O/Cu composite after catalysis.

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Sun, S., Zhang, Z., Li, S. et al. Fabrication of recyclable magnetic Fe3O4–SiO2–Cu2O/Cu core–shell nano-catalyst for high-efficient reduction of aromatic nitro compound. J Mater Sci 58, 5587–5598 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-023-08377-8

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