Immobilization of N-doped carbon porous networks containing copper nanoparticles on carbon felt fibers for industrial catalytic application

Applying green techniques and treating efficiently organic pollutants in water might be oneof the biggest challenges in chemistry. In this work, reduction of environmental pollutantssuch as toxic 4-nitrophenol, methylene blue and rhodamine B by NaBH4 at roomtemperature has been studied using a series of surface modified carbon fiber felts with Cu(xwt%, x = 1.5, 3.0, 5.0) nanoparticles buried in nitrogen doped carbon porous network [1].The catalyst which denoted as Cu(x wt%)/N-CF was prepared by pyrolysis of carbon fiberfelts containing different amounts of Cu(salen) complex at 650 °C for 2 h under argonatmosphere. The most efficient catalyst not only shows high performance and recyclabilitybut also due to having bulk structure could be applied industrially for waste watertreatments. The catalytic performance of synthesized composites attributed to the narrow andhigh distribution of copper nanoparticles in the matrix of modified carbon fibers felt. In theoptimum conditions, Cu(1.5 wt%)/N-CF exhibited the highest rate constant of k = 0.045 s-1,and TOF = 23.7 h-1at room temperature for reducing 4-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol whichis significant in comparison with expensive metal–based nanocatalysts. This compositecould be an ideal platform for use as sustainable and green heterogeneous catalyst in manychemical processes and waste water treatments.BiographyMehran Ghiaci is a professor of chemistry at Isfahan University of Technology (Iran). He received his BS (1973)and MS (1974) in chemistry from Pars College (Iran). He received his PhD degree (1980) in physical organicchemistry from University of California at Los Angeles (USA). His current research interests include physicalorganic chemistry, heterogeneous catalysts, organic synthesis, surface chemistry and chemical sensing.