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Heteroatom‐Doped Carbon Nanomaterials as Metal‐Free Catalysts for the Reduction of 4‐Nitrophenol
Author(s) -
Jarrais Bruno,
Guedes Alexandra,
Freire Cristina
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
chemistryselect
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.437
H-Index - 34
ISSN - 2365-6549
DOI - 10.1002/slct.201702706
Subject(s) - catalysis , heteroatom , nanomaterials , materials science , carbon fibers , graphene , melamine , boric acid , inorganic chemistry , carbon nanotube , triphenylphosphine , dibenzothiophene , doping , chemical engineering , nanotechnology , chemistry , organic chemistry , composite number , composite material , ring (chemistry) , optoelectronics , engineering
In this work it is described the preparation and characterization of multi‐walled carbon nanotubes and graphene flakes doped with heteroatoms, namely N, P, B, and S, through simple ball milling procedures with adequate precursors, followed by thermal treatments. Ball milling the carbon nanomaterials with melamine resulted in the introduction of pyrrolic, pyridinic and quaternary N atoms on the graphitic structure. Using triphenylphosphine as the phosphorous precursor induced the formation of R−O‐PO(OH) 2 functionalities. Materials prepared with boric acid showed the presence of boronic groups (C‐BO 2 ) and B atoms in B 2 O 3 . S‐doped materials presented tiophene‐S type atoms. The catalytic studies showed that all the doped carbon materials were active catalysts in the reduction of 4‐nitrophenol (4‐NP), and that the modifications introduced by the doping procedures, overall yielded catalysts with superior activity in regard to their pristine counterparts. Reusability experiments revealed no loss of catalytic activity up to three catalytic cycles for the doped carbon nanotubes, whereas the graphene flake materials showed some deterioration of catalytic performance.