Mussel-inspired Functionalization of Cotton for Nano-catalyst Support and Its Application in a Fixed-bed System with High Performance

Inspired by the composition of adhesive and reductive proteins secreted by marine mussels, polydopamine (PDA) was used to coat cotton microfiber (CMF), and then acted as reducing agent for the growth of Pd nanoparticles on PDA coated CMF (PDA@CMF) composites. The resultant CMF@PDA/Pd composites were then packed in a column for the further use in fixed-bed system. For the catalysis of the reduction of 4-nitrophenol, the flow rate of the 4-aminophenol solution (0.5 mM) was as high as 60 mL/min. The obtained fixed-bed system even exhibited superior performance to conventional batch reaction process because it greatly facilitated the efficiency of the catalytic fibers. Consequently, its turnover frequency (TOF) was up to 1.587 min(−1), while the TOF in the conventional batch reaction was 0.643 min(−1). The catalytic fibers also showed good recyclability, which can be recycled for nine successive cycles without a loss of activity. Furthermore, the catalytic system based on CMF@PDA/Pd can also be applied for Suzuki coupling reaction with the iodobenzene conversion up to 96.7%. The strategy to prepare CMF@PDA/Pd catalytic fixed bed was simple, economical and scalable, which can also be applied for coating different microfibers and loading other noble metal nanoparticles, was amenable for automated industrial processes.