Enhanced catalytic reduction of p-nitrophenol by nano zerovalent iron-supported metal catalysts

Abstract

Nano-sized zerovalent iron (NZVI) - supported metal catalysts were synthesized to characterize their reactivity for the reductive degradation of p-nitrophenol (PNP). Among the tested monometallic catalysts using metal promoters, Zn/NZVI showed the highest reactivity with complete reduction of PNP in 5 min (k = 0.0263 s-1). The addition of Pd accelerated the degradation kinetics of PNP with complete reduction in 1 min (k = 0.095 s-1) but promoter's presence on bimetallic catalyst surfaces simply decreased their reactivity. A proper Pd amount (1.5 wt% Pd/NZVI) showed the highest degradation rate (k = 0.248 s-1), while after its content increased to 10 wt% the rate was reduced by 5.8 times.