Enhancement of Nitrite Reduction Kinetics on Electrospun Pd-Carbon Nanomaterial Catalysts for Water Purification

Tao Ye; David P Durkin; Maocong Hu; Xianqin Wang; Nathan A Banek; Michael J Wagner; Danmeng Shuai

doi:10.1021/acsami.6b03635

Enhancement of Nitrite Reduction Kinetics on Electrospun Pd-Carbon Nanomaterial Catalysts for Water Purification

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2016 Jul 20;8(28):17739-44. doi: 10.1021/acsami.6b03635. Epub 2016 Jul 11.

Authors

Tao Ye¹, David P Durkin², Maocong Hu³, Xianqin Wang³, Nathan A Banek⁴, Michael J Wagner⁴, Danmeng Shuai¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The George Washington University , Washington, D.C. 20052, United States.
² Department of Chemistry, Johns Hopkins University , Baltimore, Maryland 21218, United States.
³ Department of Chemical, Biological and Pharmaceutical Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology , Newark, New Jersey 07102, United States.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, The George Washington University , Washington, D.C. 20052, United States.

PMID: 27387354
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.6b03635

Abstract

We report a facile synthesis method for carbon nanofiber (CNF) supported Pd catalysts via one-pot electrospinning and their application for nitrite hydrogenation. A mixture of Pd acetylacetonate (Pd(acac)2), polyacrylonitrile (PAN), and nonfunctionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) was electrospun and thermally treated to produce Pd/CNF-MWCNT catalysts. The addition of MWCNTs with a mass loading of 1.0-2.5 wt % (to PAN) significantly improved nitrite reduction activity compared to the catalyst without MWCNT addition. The results of CO chemisorption confirmed that the addition of MWCNTs increased Pd exposure on CNFs and hence improved catalytic activity.

Keywords: carbon nanofibers; carbon nanotubes; electrospinning; nitrite; palladium; water purification.