Ionic liquid-modified fibrous silica microspheres loaded with PbS nanoparticles and their enhanced catalytic activity and reusability for the hydrogen production by selective dehydrogenation of formic acid

摘要

A new type of catalyst based on the ionic liquid (IL) modified fibrous nano-silica material KCC-1, with a high surface area, as the support and PbS nanoparticles (NPs) as the active sites (KCC-1/IL/PbS), has been successfully prepared through, a facile and environmentally-friendly approach and characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). The synthesized catalyst exhibited high catalytic performance in the selective dehydrogenation of aqueous solutions of HCOOH/HCOONa to H-2 and CO2 gas due to not only the unique dendritic fibrous morphology of the support, which made the active sites accessible, but also the synergistic effect between KCC-1/IL and the small PbS NPs. Additionally, KCC-1/IL/PbS had good recyclability, mainly attributed to the IL groups, which acted as robtast anchors to avoid PbS NP leaching from the support. This synthetic method provides a green way to effectively prepare low cost PbS based catalysts and is promising for the development of other useful materials. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.