Facile synthesis of PdNiP/Reduced graphene oxide nanocomposites for catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol

A facile liquid phase reduction method for the preparation of ternary PdNiP-reduced graphene oxide (PdNiP/RGO) nanocomposites is reported. The PdNiP nanoalloys are well dispersed on RGO without obvious aggregation. Relying on the synergistic electronic effect between Pd, Ni, P and RGO, the PdNiP/RGO nanocomposites exhibit superior catalytic activity toward reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP). The 4-NP can be totally reduced to 4-aminophenol (4-AP) by NaBH4 over PdNiP/RGO catalyst at room temperature very quickly. The maximum reaction rate constant k obtained with PdNiP loading of 20 wt% (20%PdNiP/RGO) was calculated to be 1.41 min(-1), which is 7.8 times higher than the value of unsupported PdNiP.