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Updated: Mar 29, 2026

Visible-light Induced Reduction of Graphene Oxide Using Plasmonic Nanoparticle
Published on: September 22, 2015
Graphene stabilized ultra-small CuNi nanocomposite with high activity and recyclability toward catalysing the
Hao Fang1, Ming Wen1, Hanxing Chen1
1Department of Chemistry, Key Laboratory of Yangtze River Water Environment, Ministry of Education, State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, Tongji University, 1239 Siping Road, Shanghai 200092, China. m_wen@tongji.edu.cn.
Abstract:
Nowadays, it is of great significance and a challenge to design a noble-metal-free catalyst with high activity and a long lifetime for the reduction of aromatic nitro-compounds. Here, a 2D structured nanocomposite catalyst with graphene supported CuNi alloy nanoparticles (NPs) is prepared, and is promising for meeting the requirements of green chemistry. In this graphene/CuNi nanocomposite, the ultra-small CuNi nanoparticles (∼2 nm) are evenly anchored on graphene sheets, which is not only a breakthrough in the structures, but also brings about an outstanding performance in activity and stability. Combined with a precise optimization of the alloy ratios, the reaction rate constant of graphene/Cu61Ni39 reached a high level of 0.13685 s(-1), with a desirable selectivity as high as 99% for various aromatic nitro-compounds. What's more, the catalyst exhibited a unprecedented long lifetime because it could be recycled over 25 times without obvious performance decay or even a morphology change. This work showed the promise and great potential of noble-metal-free catalysts in green chemistry.
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