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Facile synthesis and characterization of palladium-loaded hydrophilic cryogels for catalytic and bactericidal applications

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Abstract

Herein, superporous hydrophilic cryogels of poly(acrylic acid) p(AAc) have been synthesized via free radical polymerization at freezing conditions by varying the concentration of monomer and cross-linker. A simple reduction method has been adopted to incorporate palladium nanoparticles (PdNPs) in p(AAc) pores. The as-synthesized hybrid cryogels were characterized through FTIR, XRD SEM, EDX, and TEM techniques. To study the water absorption capacity of as-synthesized cryogels, a swelling degree test has been conducted. The catalytic performance of the modified cryogels was evaluated for the removal of methylene blue (MB) dye using NaBH4 as a reducing agent. Different experimental parameters, for example, pH, amount of catalyst, and temperature were investigated to achieve optimized catalytic conditions. In brief, the catalytic activity of 97-AAc (3%) Pd-p(AAc) cryogel was more significant as compared to 95-AAc (5%) Pd-p(AAc)– and 93-AAc (7%) Pd-p(AAc)–based cryogels. This might be due to the presence of a superporous structure enriched with optimized Pd distribution to facilitate maximum retention of dye molecules. Furthermore, the bactericidal potential of the cryogels was evaluated by the optical density (OD) method against both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. Pd-p(AAc) cryogels exhibited enhanced antibacterial activity due to the incorporation of palladium nanoparticles within the super porous network. The as-synthesized nanocomposite cryogels were found brilliant and capable of further processing in wastewater treatment in the biomedical domain.

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The data set used and analyzed during the current study is available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This article is extracted from the M.S. thesis of Lyba Kareem (L.K). The authors acknowledge the contribution of Dr Abdul Haleem (A.H) and Dr. Ambreen Ayub (A.A) to conducting TEM, SEM and XRD analyses. The authors gratefully acknowledge the Department of Chemistry, The University of Haripur, Haripur, KPK, Pakistan, for their support during this research work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Physical and Applied Sciences, The University of Haripur, Haripur, 22620, KPK, Pakistan

    Lyba Kareem, Salma Shad, Aliya Ibrar & Muzaffar Iqbal

  2. Department of Chemistry, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, 45320, Pakistan

    Muhammad Siddiq

  3. Science Wing Laboratory, Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Islamabad, 44000, Pakistan

    Muhammad Farooq

  4. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, 212013, China

    Abdul Haleem

  5. Department of Physics, Women University Mardan, Mardan, 23200, KPK, Pakistan

    Ambreen Ayub

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  1. Lyba Kareem
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Contributions

Conceptualization, M.I; methodology, L.K.; formal analysis, S.S. and A.I.; investigation, S.S., M.F., and M.S.; resources, M.I.; writing—original draft preparation, L.K., A.H., and M.I.; writing—review and editing, S.S. and A.I; visualization, S.S. and M.S; supervision, M.I., A.I; for lab analysis, A.H and A.A; characterizations, M.F.; funding acquisition, M.S.; for submission, S.S. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Salma Shad.

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Highlights

• A novel facile synthetic approach was developed for the synthesis of cost-effective and sustainable hydrophilic acrylic acid cryogels.

• The palladium nanoparticles were incorporated within super porous cryogels to enhance the chemical and physical properties.

• The underlying mechanism was proposed for the removal of dye and bacteria using hybrid cryogels.

• The kinetic and thermodynamic properties of hybrid cryogels were investigated.

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Kareem, L., Shad, S., Siddiq, M. et al. Facile synthesis and characterization of palladium-loaded hydrophilic cryogels for catalytic and bactericidal applications. emergent mater. 7, 643–658 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42247-024-00661-w

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