Versatile Synthesis of Pd and Cu Co-Doped Porous Carbon Nitride Nanowires for Catalytic CO Oxidation Reaction

• Main Authors: Kamel Eid, Yahia H. Ahmad, Assem T. Mohamed, Anas G. Elsafy, Siham Y. Al-Qaradawi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2018-09-01
• Series: Catalysts
• Subjects: carbon nitride; nanowires; CO oxidation; noble metal catalysts
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/2073-4344/8/10/411

Developing efficient catalyst for CO oxidation at low-temperature is crucial in various industrial and environmental remediation applications. Herein, we present a versatile approach for controlled synthesis of carbon nitride nanowires (CN NWs) doped with palladium and copper (Pd/Cu/CN NWs) for CO oxidation reactions. This is based on the polymerization of melamine by nitric acid in the presence of metal-precursors followed by annealing under nitrogen. This intriguingly drove the formation of well-defined, one-dimensional nanowires architecture with a high surface area (120 m2 g−1) and doped atomically with Pd and Cu. The newly-designed Pd/Cu/CN NWs fully converted CO to CO2 at 149 °C, that was substantially more active than that of Pd/CN NWs (283 °C) and Cu/CN NWs (329 °C). Moreover, Pd/Cu/CN NWs fully reserved their initial CO oxidation activity after 20 h. This is mainly attributed to the combination between the unique catalytic properties of Pd/Cu and outstanding physicochemical properties of CN NWs, which tune the adsorption energies of CO reactant and reaction product during the CO oxidation reaction. The as-developed method may open new frontiers on using CN NWs supported various noble metals for CO oxidation reaction.