Incorporation of g-C3N4 nanosheets and CuO nanoparticles on polyester fabric for the dip-catalytic reduction of 4 nitrophenol.

In the present work, we present the preparation of a new emerged heterogeneous catalyst (PE/g-C₃N₄/CuO) by in situ deposition of copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO) over the graphitic carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄) as the active catalyst and polyester (PE) fabric as the inert support. The synthesized sample (PE/g-C₃N₄/CuO) "dip catalyst" was studied by using various analytical techniques (Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscopy and dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM/EDX), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The nanocomposite is utilized as heterogeneous catalysts for the 4-nitrophenol reduction in the presence of NaBH₄, in aqueous solutions. According to experimental results, PE/g-C₃N₄/CuO with a surface of 6 cm² (3 cm × 2 cm) demonstrated the catalyst exhibit excellent catalytic activity with 95% reduction efficiency for only 4 min of reaction and an apparent reaction rate constant (K_app) of 0.8027 min⁻¹. Further evidence that this catalyst based on prepared PE support can be a good contender for long-lasting chemical catalysis comes from the remarkable stability after 10 repetitions reaction cycles without a noticeably loss in catalytic activity. The novelty of this work consists to fabricate of catalyst based of CuO nanoparticles stabilized with g-C₃N₄ on the surface of an inert substrate PE, which results in an heterogenous dip-catalyst that can be easily introduced and isolated from the reaction solution with good retention of high catalytic performance in the reduction of 4-nitrophenol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]