Preparation of Melamine Foam Supported Nanoscale Zero Valent Iron and Its Application for Removal of Cr(VI) from Aqueous Solution and Hydrogenation of p-Nitrophenol

In this work, PEG-nZVI@MF composites were prepared by immobilizing nanoscale zero valent iron (nZVI) on melamine foam (MF) through the incorporation of polyethylene glycol (PEG). As a monolithic, low-cost, and efficient catalyst, PEG-nZVI@MF catalyst showed excellent performance in the removal of Cr(VI) from aqueous solution and catalytical hydrogenation of p-nitrophenol (p-NP). The hydrogenation of p-NP by sodium borohydride was completed within 3 min, and PEG-nZVI@MF catalyst showed excellent catalytic performance without sacrificing catalytic activity during four cycle reactions. In addition, 99 % of Cr(VI) ions in an aqueous solution were removed within 15 min. Importantly, the novel composite could be simply separated by a common external magnet. This synthesis strategy here provided a simple method to prepare air stable nZVI composites for environment remediation.