Carboxylic acid Functionalized Cage-Type Mesoporous Silica FDU-12 as Support for Controlled Synthesis of Platinum Nanoparticles and Their Catalytic Applications

Carboxylic acid functionalized 3D cage-type mesoporous silica FDU-12 with high surface area and pore volume was synthesized by a one-pot co-condensation method and used as support to synthesize Pt nanoparticles (NPs). The uniformly distributed COOH groups in the cage can control the growth of Pt NPs with high dispersion (Pt@CF-12). Pt@CF-12 was used as catalyst for the hydrolysis of ammonia borane to generate H-2 and for the reduction of 4-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol. The catalyst exhibits higher catalytic activity (H-2 generation rate of 17.8 L-H2 min(-1) g(cat)(-1)) and lower activation energy of 30.67 kJ mol(-1) compared with other Pt-based silica catalysts due to the small size of the Pt NPs (3.5 nm) and cage-type porous structure of the support, which allowed easy diffusion of reactants. Pt@CF-12 has excellent durability, since the support prevented NP aggregation and leaching of NPs during catalysis. Pt@CF-12 can convert 93% of 4-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol within 10 min.