In Situ Synthesis of Ag-Fe3O4 Nanoparticles Immobilized on Pure Cellulose Microspheres as Recyclable and Biodegradable Catalysts

Guozhen Wang; Fei Li; Lan Li; Jiayu Zhao; Xinxuan Ruan; Wenping Ding; Jie Cai; Ang Lu; Ying Pei

doi:10.1021/acsomega.0c00437

In Situ Synthesis of Ag-Fe₃O₄ Nanoparticles Immobilized on Pure Cellulose Microspheres as Recyclable and Biodegradable Catalysts

ACS Omega. 2020 Apr 10;5(15):8839-8846. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.0c00437. eCollection 2020 Apr 21.

Authors

Guozhen Wang¹, Fei Li¹, Lan Li¹, Jiayu Zhao¹, Xinxuan Ruan¹, Wenping Ding¹, Jie Cai¹, Ang Lu², Ying Pei³

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory for Deep Processing of Major Grain and Oil, College of Food Science and Engineering, Wuhan Polytechnic University, Wuhan 430023, China.
² College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China.
³ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China.

Abstract

The preparation of reusable and eco-friendly materials from renewable biomass resources such as cellulose is an inevitable choice for sustainable development. In this work, cellulose was dissolved in 7 wt % NaOH/12 wt % urea aqueous solution at -12 °C with rapid stirring. Cellulose microspheres (Cels) were fabricated by a sol-gel transition method. Subsequently, novel magnetic Ag-Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles (NPs) supported on cellulose microspheres were successfully constructed by an in situ one-pot synthesis. The magnetic cellulose microspheres (MCels) displayed a spherical shape with mesoporous structure and had a narrow particle size distribution (10-20 μm). Many nanopores with a pore diameter of 5-40 nm were observed in MCels. The Ag-Fe₃O₄ NPs were immobilized by anchoring with the hydroxyl groups on the surface of Cels. MCels were applied as a microreactor to evaluate their catalytic activities. 4-Nitrophenol (4-NP) could be reduced to 4-aminophenol (4-AP) in 5 min, catalyzed by MCels. Moreover, the magnetic microspheres exhibited a small hysteresis loop and low coercivity. Thus, MCels could be quickly gathered in water under a magnetic field in 10 s, as well as almost 9 cycle times, maintaining relatively high catalytic activity. In this work, cellulose matrix as the catalyst support could be biodegraded completely in the environment. It provided a green process for the utilization of biomass in nanocatalytic applications.