Synthesis of Fe3O4/Pt Nanoparticles Decorated Carbon Nanotubes and Their Use as Magnetically Recyclable Catalysts

We report a facile approach to prepare Fe3O4/Pt nanoparticles decorated carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The superparamagnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles with average size of 4 similar to 5 nm were loaded on the surfaces of carboxyl groups functionalized CNTs via a high-temperature solution-phase hydrolysis method from the raw material of FeCl3. The synthesis process of magnetic CNTs is green and readily scalable. The loading amounts of Fe3O4 nanopartilces and the magnetizations of the resulting magnetic CNTs show good tunability. The Pt nanopaticles with average size of 2.5 nm were deposited on the magnetic CNTs through a solution-based method. It is demonstrated that the Fe3O4/Pt nanoparticles decorated CNTs have high catalytic activity in the reduction reaction of 4-nitrophenol and can be readily recycled by a magnet and reused in the next reactions with high efficiencies for at least fifteen successive cycles. The novel CNTs-supported magnetically recyclable catalysts are promising in heterogeneous catalysis applications.