Catalytic activity of palladium doped activated carbon from waste coffee on some environmental pollutants

The presence of nitro compounds and such commercial dyes as Congo red, methylene blue, methyl orange and methyl red in water/wastewater causes environmental issues. The treatment of such industrial contaminants, new efficient hybrid catalysts are designed by Research groups all around the world. For this aim, a large of catalyst systems were designed and their water treatment capacities were investigated. As a part of Green Chemistry approach, food wastes could be used for production of porous carbon materials. In this work, a palladium/activated carbon hybrid catalyst (AC-Pd) was prepared and characterized by XRD, SEM/EDS and TEM. It was found from TEM analysis that the average particle size of AC-Pd hybrid was about 54 nm. The reduction capacity of AC-Pd for nitroarenes and organic dyes was investigated by UV-Vis. spectroscopy in aqueous media. According to catalytic tests results, AC-Pd nanocatalyst could be used in reduction of both nitro compounds and organic dyes.