Facile Synthesis of Ag NPs Decorated CuO/Cu2O Composite Nanoparticles for Enhancing Catalytic Activity in the Hydrogenation of 4-Nitrophenol

The catalytic hydrogenation of 4-Nitrophenol (4-NP) can transfer serious toxic 4-NP to invaluable industrial raw materials 4-aminophenol (4-AP) in the presence of NaBH4 , which prevents industrial and agricultural wastewater affecting the health of living beings. It is crucial and meaningful to design cost-effective catalysts as alternate to cut down the dependence on precious metals catalysts in the reduction of 4-NP. Metal/ semiconductor composites can be endowed promising cost-effective substitution to catalyticly reduce 4-NP. Herein, CuO/Cu2O-Ag composite nanoparticles (CNPs) were prepared based on the CuO/Cu2O nanocubes by a step method. The morphology and components of the CuO/Cu2O-Ag CNPs were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electronic microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) respectively. CuO/Cu2O-Ag CNPs displayed high catalytic activity in the hydrogenation of 4-NP with pseudo-first-order rate constant of 1.5x 10(-2)s(-1). Notably, a high turnover frequency of 6.44x 10(-2)s(-1) was obtained, which expressed much higher than some noblemetal catalysts. Also, CuO/Cu2O-Ag CNPs exhibited outstanding sustainable catalytic performance, as no distinct activity slump was perceived in continuous 10 cycles with conversion rate exceed 95%, endowed it potential utility in industrialization.