Silver nanoparticle-immobilized porous POM/PLLA nanofibrous membranes: efficient catalysts for reduction of 4-nitroaniline

Abstract

In this study, porous polyoxymethylene/poly(L-lactide) (POM/PLLA) nanofibrous membranes (NFMs) immobilized with silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) are obtained via the technique of electrospinning followed by the method of seed-mediated silver electroless depositing. POM/PLLA NFMs with a high surface area were functionalized with amino groups acting as anchors so that the Ag NPs with an average diameter of about 7.6 nm were well-dispersed on the fibers of POM/PLLA NFMs. The POM/PLLA NFMs with a Ag loading content of 20.7 wt% exhibit a high catalytic rate constant of 21.25 × 10⁻³ s⁻¹. Furthermore, the catalytic NFMs exhibit an excellent recoverable and cyclic feature that give a more than 99% conversion of 4-nitroaniline (4-NA) after 4 reaction cycles. The continuous conversion rate of 4-NA can remain higher than 90% even after 4 hours of running time at a flow rate of 0.4 mL min⁻¹. Therefore, the abovementioned approach based on POM/PLLA NFMs provides a useful platform for the fabrication of noble metal nanocatalysts, which could be used as the efficient catalysts in various applications.