Nuclear chemistry

Wastewater

Catalysis

Adsorption

Methyl red

Engineering

Nanoparticle

Methyl orange

Materials science

Methylene blue

Pollutant

Chitosan

Congo red

Toluene

Environmental engineering

Nanotechnology

Organic chemistry

Aqueous solution

Graphitic carbon nitride

Chemistry

Industrial wastewater treatment

Photocatalysis

Ceramics International

The presence of various organic contaminants such as toxic nitro compounds and dyes in water/wastewater poses a major problem for the environment and human health. Therefore, the treatments of these pollutants are of vital importance. For this aim, a novel heterogeneous catalyst system, in which Pd nanoparticles were immobilized on micro sized chitosan-g-C3N4 hybrid spheres was developed, and its nano-sized structure was confirmed by SEM, EDS, XRD, FT-IR, TG and TEM analyses (Pd-CS-g-C3N4). Then the catalytic potential of Pd-CS-g-C3N4 was evaluated against the reduction of various organic pollutants such as 4-nitro toluene (4-NT), 2-nitroanilin (2-NA), 4-nitroanilin (4-NA), 4-nitrophenol (4-NP), 3-nitrophenol (3-NP), 4-nitro-o-phenylenediamine (4-NPD), 4-nitrobenzoic acid (4-NBA), 4-nitrobenzaldehyde (4-NBZA), methyl orange (MO), methylene blue (MB), congo red (CR), and methyl red (MR) in aqueous solution at room temperature by using NaBH4. The catalytic performance tests showed that Pd-CS-g-C3N4 nanocatalyst effectively catalyzed both nitro compound and organic dye reductions within very short reaction time. Furthermore, Pd-CS-g-C3N4 nanocatalyst was reused many times by preserving both its chemical structure and activity.

Production of Pd nanoparticles embedded on micro-sized chitosan/graphitic carbon nitride hybrid spheres for treatment of environmental pollutants in aqueous medium