Covalent Organic Framework-Functionalized Magnetic CuFe2O4/Ag Nanoparticles for the Reduction of 4-Nitrophenol

Chen Hou; Dongyan Zhao; Wenqiang Chen; Hao Li; Sufeng Zhang; Chen Liang

doi:10.3390/nano10030426

Covalent Organic Framework-Functionalized Magnetic CuFe₂O₄/Ag Nanoparticles for the Reduction of 4-Nitrophenol

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2020 Feb 28;10(3):426. doi: 10.3390/nano10030426.

Authors

Chen Hou¹, Dongyan Zhao¹, Wenqiang Chen¹, Hao Li¹, Sufeng Zhang¹, Chen Liang²

Affiliations

¹ College of Bioresources Chemical and Materials Engineering, Shaanxi Provincial Key Laboratory of Papermaking Technology and Specialty Paper Development, Key Laboratory of Paper Based Functional Materials of China National Light Industry, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Light Chemistry Engineering Education, Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, Xi'an 710021, China.
² Key Laboratory of Clean Pulp & Papermaking and Pollution Control of Guangxi Province, Guangxi University, Nanning 543003, China.

Abstract

In this work, magnetic CuFe₂O₄/Ag nanoparticles activated by porous covalent organic frameworks (COF) was fabricated to evaluate the heterogenous reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP). The core-shell CuFe₂O₄/Ag@COF was successfully prepared by polydopamine reduction of silver ions on CuFe₂O₄ nanoparticles, followed by COF layer condensation. By integrating the intrinsic characteristics of the magnetic CuFe₂O₄/Ag core and COF layer, the obtained nanocomposite exhibited features of high specific surface area (464.21 m² g^-1), ordered mesoporous structure, strong environment stability, as well as fast magnetic response. Accordingly, the CuFe₂O₄/Ag@COF catalyst showed good affinity towards 4-NP via π-π stacking interactions and possessed enhanced catalytic activity compared with CuFe₂O₄/Ag and CuFe₂O₄@COF. The pseudo-first-order rate constant of CuFe₂O₄/Ag@COF (0.77 min^-1) is 3 and 5 times higher than CuFe₂O₄/Ag and CuFe₂O₄@COF, respectively. The characteristics of bi-catalytic CuFe₂O₄/Ag and the porous COF shell of CuFe₂O₄/Ag@COF made a contribution to improve the activity of 4-NP reduction. The present work demonstrated a facile strategy to fabricate COF-activated nano-catalysts with enhanced performance in the fields of nitrophenolic wastewater treatment.

Keywords: core-shell; magnetic covalent organic frameworks; nanocomposite; p-nitrophenol; reduction.