Muhammad Farooq
Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Pakistan
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Material Sci Eng
The work presented here describes the successful synthesis and characterization of Gum Arabic (GA) microgel for in situ metal nanoparticles preparation for further use in the catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) to 4-Nitroaniline (4-NA). A reverse micellization method was owned to prepare GA based spherical microgels with a high yield of up to 79 % in 5-50 μm size range via successful crosslinking by divinyl sulfone (DVS) in gasoline medium. The as-synthesized microgels were used as a template for in situ fabrication of nickel (Ni) and copper (Cu) nanoparticles (NPs) using their corresponding salts as metal ion source and NaBH4 as reducing agent. The successful synthesis of the prepared microgels thereafter in situ fabrication of nanoparticles was confirmed from Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), X-ray diffraction characterization, Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). The Ni and Cu NPs loaded microgels were known as GA-Ni and GA-Cu microgels with Nickle and Copper NPs respectively. Further, the catalytic reduction characteristics of the prepared GA-Ni and GACu composite microgels towards 4-NP were evaluated. Interestingly, the hybrid microgel show enhanced catalytic activity for the conversion of 4-NP to 4-NA which follows pseudo-first order kinetic rate law as well. A time delay of 8-10 min for all different amounts was observed for this catalytic reduction at room temperature 25°C; whereas the reduction interval was reduced to 6 min when of 0.05 g GA-Ni microgels were used.
Journal of Material Sciences & Engineering received 3677 citations as per Google Scholar report
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