Facile Fabrication of Nickel/Heazlewoodite@Carbon Nanosheets and their Superior Catalytic Performance of 4-Nitrophenol Reduction

Graphical SuperHUMATE performance : A novel catalyst, carbon anchored nickel/heazlewoodite nanoparticles (Ni/Ni 3 S 2 @C nanosheets), was fabricated by facile pyrolysis of solid precursor with potassium humate as carbon source and sulfur source. The Ni/Ni 3 S 2 @C nanocatalyst exhibited superior catalytic performance towards 4-nitrophenol reduction with excessed sodium borohydride as reactant, which the K /m value up to 166 s −1 g −1 . A facile molten salt method was utilized for the synthesis of carbon anchored nickel/heazlewoodite nanoparticles (Ni/Ni 3 S 2 @C nanosheets) with potassium humate as the carbon and sulfur source and NaCl as template. The morphology, particle size and crystallinity of the products were characterized by various techniques containing TEM, FE-SEM and XRD. Furthermore, the mesoporous Ni/Ni 3 S 2 @C own easy accessibility of active sites and high surface area (149.04 m 2 g −1 ). Thus, the as-prepared Ni/Ni 3 S 2 @C exhibited prominent performance for catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP). Catalytic reduction of other nitrophenols (NPs) were also tested which can prove that the catalyst own selectivity on reduction of NPs. For durability, the property of the catalyst does not decrease obviously after five cycles. More significant correlations concerning effect of activation parameters ( E a =37.21 kJ mol −1 ) on 4-NP reduction were scrutinized and discussed. Hence, we provide a facile method for fabrication of metal/metal sulfide@C which own better dispersity, small dimension and excellent catalytic performance for further studies.