Modified graphene supported Ag–Cu NPs with enhanced bimetallic synergistic effect in oxidation and Chan–Lam coupling reactions†
Abstract
Herein, well dispersed Ag–Cu NPs supported on modified graphene have been synthesized via a facile and rapid approach using sodium borohydride as a reducing agent under ambient conditions. Dicyandiamide is selected as an effective nitrogen source with TiO2 as an inorganic material to form two kinds of supports, labelled as TiO2–NGO and NTiO2–GO. Initially, the surface area analysis of these two support materials was carried out which indicated that N-doping of GO followed by anchoring with TiO2 has produced support material of larger surface area. Using both types of supports, ten nano-metal catalysts based on Ag and Cu were synthesized. Benefiting from the bimetallic synergistic effect and larger specific surface area of TiO2–NGO, Cu@Ag–TiO2–NGO is found to be a highly active and reusable catalyst out of other synthesized catalysts. It exhibits excellent catalytic activity for oxidation of alcohols and hydrocarbons as well as Chan–Lam coupling reactions. The nanocatalyst is intensively characterized by BET, SEM, HR-TEM, ICP-AES, EDX, CHN, FT-IR, TGA, XRD and XPS.