Palladium nanoparticles on modified cellulose as a novel catalyst for low temperature gas reactions

Abstract

Palladium was incorporated into carboxymethylated cellulose fibers as a support, thereby becoming an efficient and stable catalyst for low temperature gas phase reaction. Thus, NO was used as test molecule of Greenhouse Gas to be catalytically reduced with hydrogen on an eco-friendly sustainable material containing palladium as the active site. Prior to the catalytic test, the catalysts were reduced with glucose as an eco-friendly reagent. The material characterization was performed by SEM–EDS, XRD, LRS, TGA and FTIR. The catalytic results showed that at 170 °C, NO conversion was 100% with a selectivity of 70% to nitrogen. While NOX species were completely converted into N2 at temperatures higher than 180 °C. The starting commercial dissolving pulp was also studied, but its performance resulted lower than the ones of functionalized fibers. The use of this strategy, i.e., the functionalization of cellulose fibers followed by in-situ formation of metallic nanoparticles, can be further applied for the design of a wide range of materials with interesting applications for gas and liquid phase reactions under mild conditions.