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Palladium nanoparticles uniformly and firmly supported on hierarchical flower-like TiO2 nanospheres as a highly active and reusable catalyst for detoxification of Cr(VI)-contaminated water

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Abstract

The rational design of highly active and stable nanocatalysts towards the detoxification of Cr(VI)-contaminated water is of great importance for environmental remediation. In the present work, a novel Pd-based hybrid nanomaterial, composed of Pd nanoparticles (Pd NPs) supported on three-dimensional hierarchical titania nanoflowers (fTiO2), was fabricated and systematically investigated as the catalyst of chromium detoxification. Pd NPs with diameter of ~ 2.8 nm were found to be uniformly and firmly supported onto the crystalline nanosheets of fTiO2. More importantly, the highly open porous flower-like architecture of Pd NPs/fTiO2 could not only endow the catalyst with high surface area (237.5 m2 g−1) and large pore volume (0.86 cm3 g−1), but also facilitate reactant diffusion and exposure of active sites. Benefitting from these remarkable features, the Pd NPs/fTiO2 exhibited superior catalytic performance for reduction of Cr(VI) in the presence of formic acid. The TOF reached up to 633.0 h−1, which was several and even more than one hundred times as high as those obtained by previously reported supported Pd-based catalysts. Moreover, the catalytic activity of Pd NPs/fTiO2 could remain almost unchanged after being recycled several times, demonstrating its long-term stability. Therefore, the Pd NPs/fTiO2 would be promising for practical wastewater treatment.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21303170), Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province (No. 2015CFB187), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) (Nos. CUGL150414, CUGL140413 and CUG120115).

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  1. Haitao Li and Min Gao contributed equally to this work.

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  1. Faculty of Material Science and Chemistry, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430074, People’s Republic of China

    Haitao Li, Min Gao, Qiang Gao, Hongquan Wang, Bo Han, Kaisheng Xia & Chenggang Zhou

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  1. Haitao Li
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Li, H., Gao, M., Gao, Q. et al. Palladium nanoparticles uniformly and firmly supported on hierarchical flower-like TiO2 nanospheres as a highly active and reusable catalyst for detoxification of Cr(VI)-contaminated water. Appl Nanosci 10, 359–369 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13204-019-01164-5

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