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Published on: August 18, 2020
Catalytic Reduction of Nitrobenzene Using Silver Nanoparticles Embedded Calcium Alginate Film
Jayanta Kumar Basu1, Sonali Sengupta1
1Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur 721302, India.
Abstract:
Synthesis of silver nanoparticles embedded on calcium alginate film and the catalytic property of this film in the reduction of nitrobenzene with sodium borohydride are demonstrated in this work. Natural polymer alginate acts as effective reducing and stabilizing agent in synthesis of silver nanoparticles. Effect of different parameters on the preparation of silver nanoparticles, such as, temperature, concentration of silver precursor and heating time was investigated. As-prepared silver nanoparticles were characterized by transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, UV-Vis spectrometry, and atomic absorption spectrometry. Transmission electron microscopy analysis con-firms the formation of silver nanoparticles with particles size range of 3-19 nm and average particle size was found to be 10±4 nm. Effect of concentration of nitrobenzene and sodium borohydride, catalyst loading and temperature on the catalytic reduction of nitrobenzene was studied. Reusability of catalyst was examined in this reduction reaction and the catalyst shows good activity up to 10th run.
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