Facile Use of Silver Nanoparticles-Loaded Alumina/Silica in Nanofluid Formulations for Enhanced Catalytic Performance toward 4-Nitrophenol Reduction

Rashmi Mannu, Vaithinathan Karthikeyan, Murugendrappa Malalkere Veerappa, Vellaisamy A. L. Roy, Anantha-Iyengar Gopalan, Gopalan Saianand, Prashant Sonar, Binrui Xu, Kwang-Pill Lee, Wha-Jung Kim, Dong-Eun Lee and Venkatramanan Kannan
Additional contact information
Rashmi Mannu: Department of Physics, SCSVMV Deemed University, Kanchipuram 631561, India
Vaithinathan Karthikeyan: Department of Materials Science & Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Murugendrappa Malalkere Veerappa: Department of Physics, BMS College of Engineering, Bangalore 560019, India
Vellaisamy A. L. Roy: Department of Electronics & Nanoscale Engineering, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK
Anantha-Iyengar Gopalan: Daeyong Regional Infrastructure Technology Development Center, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41556, Korea
Gopalan Saianand: Global Center for Environmental Remediation, College of Engineering, Science and Environment, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia
Prashant Sonar: School of Chemistry and Physics, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), 2 George Street, Brisbane, QLD 4001, Australia
Binrui Xu: Electrical Engineering College, Henan University of Science and Technology, Box 60, 263 Kaiyuan-Road, Luolong, Luoyang 471023, China
Kwang-Pill Lee: Daeyong Regional Infrastructure Technology Development Center, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41556, Korea
Wha-Jung Kim: Daeyong Regional Infrastructure Technology Development Center, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41556, Korea
Dong-Eun Lee: School of Architecture, Civil, Environment and Energy Engineering, Kyungpook National University, 80, Daehakro, Buk-gu, Daegu 41566, Korea
Venkatramanan Kannan: Department of Physics, SCSVMV Deemed University, Kanchipuram 631561, India

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 6, 1-22

Abstract: The introduction of toxic chemicals into the environment can result in water pollution leading to the degradation of biodiversity as well as human health. This study presents a new approach of using metal oxides (Al 2 O 3 and SiO 2 ) modified with a plasmonic metal (silver, Ag) nanoparticles (NPs)-based nanofluid (NF) formulation for environmental remediation purposes. Firstly, we prepared the Al 2 O 3 and SiO 2 NFs of different concentrations (0.2 to 2.0 weight %) by ultrasonic-assisted dispersion of Al 2 O 3 and SiO 2 NPs with water as the base fluid. The thermo-physical (viscosity, activation energy, and thermal conductivity), electrical (AC conductivity and dielectric constant) and physical (ultrasonic velocity, density, refractive index) and stability characteristics were comparatively evaluated. The Al 2 O 3 and SiO 2 NPs were then catalytically activated by loading silver NPs to obtain Al 2 O 3 /SiO 2 @Ag composite NPs. The catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) with Al 2 O 3 /SiO 2 @Ag based NFs was followed. The catalytic efficiency of Al 2 O 3 @Ag NF and SiO 2 @Ag NF, for the 4-NP catalysis, is compared. Based on the catalytic rate constant evaluation, the catalytic reduction efficiency for 4-NP is found to be superior for 2% weight Al 2 O 3 @Ag NF (92.9 × 10 ?3 s ?1 ) as compared to the SiO 2 @Ag NF (29.3 × 10 ?3 s ?1 ). Importantly, the enhanced catalytic efficiency of 2% weight Al 2 O 3 @Ag NF for 4-NP removal is much higher than other metal NPs based catalysts reported in the literature, signifying the importance of NF formulation-based catalysis.

Keywords: nanofluids; metal oxides; silver nanoparticles; thermo-physical properties; catalytic reduction; 4-nitrophenol (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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