Fabricating series of controllable-porosity carbon nanofibers-based palladium nanoparticles catalyst with enhanced performances and reusability

•Pd NPs/PCNFs possesses meso- and nanoporous/nanochannels structures that throughout the surface was achieved.•Electrospinning technology was applied to obtain composite PCNFs-immobilized Pd NPs catalyst.•The catalyst holds large specific surface area, high-activity, stability and reusability.

The porous carbon nanofibers-supported palladium nanoparticles hybrid catalyst was put forward. Highly porous, large specific surface area and uniform distribution without aggregating of palladium nanoparticles in the carbon matrix were achieved by combining eletrospinning, chemical reduction and subsequent calcination methods. Polystyrene and polyacrylonitrile acted as the thermal degradable polymer and the carbon precursor polymer, respectively. A series of characterization of catalyst were carried out to investigate the morphology and materials properties of the precursors and the final porous carbon nanofibers, which including simultaneous thermal analyzer, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller measurements, UV–vis diffuses reflectance spectra, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, the field emission scanning electron microscope and the field emission transmission electron microscope. Foremost, when it was tested as catalyst for the Heck coupling reaction, the porous carbon nanofibers-loaded palladium nanoparticles catalyst exhibited enhanced activity, excellent stabilization and recyclability. Moreover, PS has the possibility of recycling which is important to develop green chemistry. Overall, the as-made carbon nanofibers-supported palladium nanoparticles catalyst with large porosity was prepared in an easy way and showed enhanced activity in comparision with the pure carbon nanofibers-supported palladium nanoparticles catalyst.

Graphical abstractThe schematic illustration: novel preparation process and activity test for PCNFs-supported Pd NPs catalyst.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload high-quality image (200 K)Download as PowerPoint slide