The reduction of 4-nitrophenol and 2-nitroaniline by the incorporation of Ni@Pd MNPs into modified UiO-66-NH2 metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) with tetrathia-azacyclopentadecane

We have found that UiO-66-NH2 can be used as an excellent support for the synthesis of highly sparse nanoparticles. UiO-66-NH2 has a high surface area that was functionalized with tetrathia-azacyclopentadecane (TTACP) groups acting as strong conjugation sites so that Ni@Pd nanoparticles were well dispersed without aggregation on the structures of the UiO-66-NH2 microspheres (UiO-66-NH2/TTACP/Ni@Pd). The synthesized UiO-66-NH2/TTACP/Ni@Pd magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) exhibited excellent catalytic activity for the reduction of 2-nitroaniline and 4-nitrophenol.