Synthesis and Catalytic Activity of Alkylamine-Capped Ultra-small Palladium Nanoparticles for Organic Pollutant Degradation

Over the past few decades, increasing attention has been focused on overcoming the scarcity of fresh water resources, with the rapid effluents of dyes from modern chemical industries causing issues in photosynthetic activity of aquatic organisms. In the process of recycling wastewater, the degradation of dye pollutants such as 4-nitrophenol, methylene blue, and methyl orange has become more crucial. Noble metal (silver, gold, palladium, and platinum) materials have significant potential applications in the areas of water purification, conversion of automobile exhaust emissions, and catalysis. Ultra-small alkylamine-capped palladium nanoparticles (APd NPs) with sizes below 10 nm are synthesized using hexadecylamine (HDA) as a stabilizing material, and HDA can prevent the irreversible aggregation of small-sized nanoparticles in solution-based reactions. The fabricated ultra-small APd NPs are investigated using UV-Vis, XRD, SEM, TEM, FTIR and TGA studies. In the presence of NaBH4 as a reducing agent, the APd NPs achieve high catalytic performance toward the degradation of dye pollutants such as 4-nitrophenol, methylene blue and methyl orange.