Layered CuNi-Cu2O/NiAlOx nanocatalyst for rapid conversion of p-nitrophenol to p-aminophenol
Lin Fu, Wei Zhou, Ming Wen, Qingsheng Wu, Weiying Li, Dandan Wu, Quanjing Zhu, Jiaqi Ran, Panpan Ren
Abstract
In order to well arrange active sites and avoid byproducts, the reasonable structured carrier nanocatalyst plays a crucial role in high catalytic performance, but still remains a challenge. Herein, the layered CuNi-Cu2O/NiAlOx nanosheets have been constructed through hydrothermal synthesis followed by calcination and H2 reduction treatment process. The in-situ formed CuNi nanoalloys (NAs) and nano-Cu2O were evenly distributed on the bilateral surface of layered NiAlOx nanosheets. Based on the planar structure of nanosheet, the synergy between catalytic active CuNi NAs and photocatalytic active nano-Cu2O endows CuNi-Cu2O/NiAlOx nanosheets with rapid conversion efficiency for catalyzing p-nitrophenol (p-NP, 14 mg·L−1) to p-aminophenol (p-AP) in 32 s with the reaction rate constant k up to 0.1779 s−1, and no obvious performance decay can be observed even over 27 cycles. Moreover, high concentration of p-NP at 10 and 20 g·L−1 could be reduced to p-AP within 14 and 20 min, respectively. Such designed nanoalloy/bimetal-oxide heterostructure can provide a solution for rapid conversion of aminoaromatics from nitroaromatics wastewater even at a large concentration range.