A facile process combined with defect-induced electroless plating and selective laser sintering forming to fabricate catalytically active free-standing material

摘要

The most common method for preparation of catalytically active free-standing hybrid material (CAFH) is that supporting material is formed and subsequent catalytic agent deposited on its surface. But it remains challenging to agilely prepare CAFH with different shape and size. We employ a facile process combined with defect-induced electroless nickel plating and selective laser sintering (SLS) forming to fabricate CAFH. Results manifested CH_3COOH-etched treatment resulted in the formation of defect (amorphous structure, amide group and hole) on the Nylon 12 (PA12) surface, which would induce electroless Ni plating. The mechanism of the electroless plating is the destruction of the structure of [C_6H_5O_7~(3-)-Ni] ligand around defect; subsequently, the reduction of the REDOX barrier. The following laser sintering of the plated PA12 powder could fabricate CAFH with an irregular network. There are two stages during the SLS process: balling of particle and formation of sintered neck. The combination of the structural stability, high surface area and recyclability gives a CAFH with demonstrated catalytic property. CAFH is agile to prepare, easy for quick-to-assemble material and realizable in CAFH shape design. The new technology possesses vast exploration and application value.