Rapid synthesis of ultrasmall platinum nanoparticles supported on macroporous cellulose fibers for catalysis

Md Tariqul Islam; Jose A Rosales; Ricardo Saenz-Arana; Shahrouz J Ghadimi; Juan C Noveron

doi:10.1039/c9na00124g

Rapid synthesis of ultrasmall platinum nanoparticles supported on macroporous cellulose fibers for catalysis

Nanoscale Adv. 2019 Jun 4;1(8):2953-2964. doi: 10.1039/c9na00124g. eCollection 2019 Aug 6.

Authors

Md Tariqul Islam^{1

2}, Jose A Rosales¹, Ricardo Saenz-Arana¹, Shahrouz J Ghadimi^{2

3}, Juan C Noveron^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Texas at El Paso, 500 West University Avenue El Paso TX 79968 USA mtislam@miners.utep.edu tariqul.lab@gmail.com jcnoveron@utep.edu.
² NSF Nanosystems Engineering Research Center for Nanotechnology Enabled Water Treatment (NEWT) USA.
³ Department of Civil Engineering, University of Texas at El Paso, 500 West University Avenue El Paso TX 79968 USA.

Abstract

Herein, we report a facile method for the synthesis of platinum nanoparticles (PtNPs) about 2.25 nm in size by heating a solution of chloroplatinic acid and sodium rhodizonate. The PtNPs were synthesized in about 5 min. The PtNPs were supported on macroporous cellulose fibers that were obtained from Kimwipe paper (KWP). The cellulose fiber-supported PtNPs (PtNPs@KWP) exhibited excellent catalytic activity towards the reduction of organic pollutants [e.g. methyl orange (MO)] in the presence of hydrogen (H₂) gas and formic acid (FA). FA and H₂ gas were utilized as clean and alternative reducing agents. The reduction of MO was performed in two different types of water matrices viz. deionized water (DIW) and simulated fresh drinking water (FDW). In both water matrices, the FA mediated reduction of MO was found to be faster than the H₂ gas-bubbled one. The PtNPs@KWP demonstrated excellent cycling stability without leaching the PtNPs or platinum ions into the solution for at least five cycles.