Magnetically recoverable hierarchical Pt/Fe2O3 microflower: Superior catalytic activity and stability for reduction of 4-nitrophenol

Due to the excessive cost and scarcity of Pt metal, it is very vital to enhance the utilization efficiency and recovery yield of Pt-based catalysts. Herein, we employ a facile and simple approach to synthesize the hierarchical gamma-Fe2O3 microflowers supported Pt, which is assembled from gamma-Fe2O3 nanosheets as building blocks. Further analysis demonstrated that well-dispersed Pt nanoparticles with average size of 1.5 nm are uniformly supported on the gamma-Fe2O3 nanosheets and the hierarchical structure provides a large surface area and abundant macropores and mesopores. The resultant Pt/Fe2O3 microflowers show superior catalytic performance for the reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) to 4-aminophenol (4-AP), including high conversion and excellent recycling durability. Furthermore, the unique magnetically separable property of the Pt/Fe2O3 microflowers makes their recovery easy after reaction using an external magnet, which not only saves the cost and time but also tremendously increases the recovery yield of catalyst Consequently, the magnetically recoverable Pt/Fe2O3 catalyst with the facile synthesized strategy, good catalytic performance and high utilization efficiency would be well expected as a potential candidate for practical utilization.