A palladium complex immobilized onto a magnetic GO-MnFe2O4 surface as an effective and recyclable catalyst for the reduction of p-nitrophenol

A magnetically separable palladium complex on a GO-MnFe2O4 surface has been synthesized by covalent immobilization of a palladium complex on the magnetic GO-MnFe2O4 surface functionalized with 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES). In general, magnetic, iron based materials (MnFe2O4) are effective in many catalytic reactions and are advantageous compared with other metal oxides due to their magnetic recyclability. The catalytic activities of these nanohybrids have been studied in p-nitrophenol (p-Nip) reduction. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES), X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDAX) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to characterize the catalyst. The successful incorporation of the palladium complex onto GO-MnFe2O4 has been confirmed by FT-IR spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis and ICP-AES. The intact structure of GO-MnFe2O4 was verified by X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDAX) and TEM. The strong reduction of p-nitrophenol was shown by the palladium complex on GO-MnFe2O4. This magnetic heterogeneous catalyst was well recoverable with no significant loss of activity and selectivity after five successive runs.