A Facile Approach of Fabricating Bifunctional Catalysts for Redox Applications by Uniformly Immobilized Metallic Nanoparticles on NiCr LDH

This study discloses the development of NiCr LDH, Ag@NiCr LDH, and Pd@NiCr LDH bifunction catalysts using a hydrothermal coprecipitation method followed by sol immobilization of metallic nanoparticles. The structures and morphologies of the synthesized nanocomposites were analyzed using FTIR, XRD, XPS, BET, FESEM-EDX, and HRTEM. The catalytic effectiveness of the samples was evaluated by tracking the progression of NaBH(4)-mediated nitrobenzene (NB) reduction to aniline and CO oxidation using UV-visible spectrophotometry and an infrared gas analyzer, respectively. Pd@NiCr LDH displayed much higher performance for both reactions than the bare NiCr LDH. The catalyst Pd@NiCr LDH showed robust catalytic activity in both the oxidation of carbon monoxide (T(50%) (136.1 °C) and T(100%) (200.2 °C)) and NaBH(4)-mediated nitrobenzene reduction (98.7% conversion and 0.365 min(−1) rate constant). The results disclose that the Ni(2+)@ Cr(3+)/Cr(6+) @Pd° ion pairs inside the LDH act as a charge transfer center and hence significantly enhance the catalytic performance. As a result, this research offers the novel NiCr LDH catalyst as a bifunctional catalyst for air depollution control and the organic transformation process.