Fabrication of palladium nanocatalyst supported on magnetic eggshell and its catalytic character in the catalytic reduction of nitroarenes in water

Aromatic nitro compounds, which have good solubility in water, are highly toxic and non-biodegradable are one of the most important industrial pollutants and have negative effects on human health, aquatic life and the environment. Therefore, the elimination of these harmful organic compounds has become an issue of great importance. For this, in this study we have developed a palladium nanocatalyst supported on Fe3O4-coated eggshell and characterized by FT-IR, XRD, XPS, FE-SEM, TG/DTG, BET, TEM and EDS techniques (Pd-Fe3O4-ES). Also, the quantitative analysis of Pd was determined using ICP-OES. The catalytic behavior of the designed Pd-Fe3O4-ES nanocatalyst was investigated against the catalytic reduction of several highly toxic nitro compounds using NaBH4 in water at room temperature. The progress of the reduction was followed using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The catalytic studies revealed that the nitro compounds were converted into the desired amines by the Pd-Fe3O4-ES nanocatalyst using a very low dose of catalyst (15 mg) and short-duration reactions (81–360 s) in aqueous medium at ambient temperature. Furthermore, the Pd-Fe3O4-ES nanocatalyst showed good catalytic stability by retaining its activity after the fifth catalytic run.