Preparation of supported ultrafine platinum nanocatalysts by ethylene glycol assisted photochemical method and application of catalytic 4-NP

Abstract

Ultrafine Pt nanoparticles (Pt/SWCNTs) supported on single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) were prepared by a photochemical method assisted by ethylene glycol (EG) as a reducing agent without the addition of stabilizing agents. the application in the reduction of 4-Nitrophenol (4-NP) was also explored. XRD diffraction patterns show that the content of Pt (111) crystal planes is higher, which is beneficial for improving the catalytic activity of platinum nanoparticles. TEM results showed that Pt/SWCNTs-E3 prepared under Ultra Violet (UV) light irradiation had a small-size particle with an average particle size of about 2.2 nm. XPS results showed that the prepared Pt nanoparticles mainly existed in the form of Pt⁰. The catalytic performance test results showed that the Pt/SWCNTs prepared under the UV condition of 395 nm had the highest activity for catalyzing the reduction of 4-NP, and the apparent rate constant was k = 0.34 min⁻¹, indicating that it had good catalytic activity. After seven cycles, the conversion rate remains about 83%, which has good reusability and stability. The results show that the aggregation of Pt intermediates can be effectively controlled by photo-induced and strong metal − support interaction (SMSI) to obtain ultrafine nanoparticles dominated by Pt⁰.

Keywords:

• Ultrafine Pt nanoparticles
• single-walled carbon nanotubes
• photochemical
• catalysis
• reduction of 4-nitrophenol

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work is supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, Northwest Minzu University 2019 (Grant No. 31920190017) The Fund supported data collection, analysis, and interpretation.