Formation of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube-Ruthenium Nanoparticles in Ethanol upon Microwave Radiation

In this work, an environmentally friendly microwave method was employed to rapidly synthesize a single-walled carbon nanotube-Ru nanoparticle (SWCNT-Ru) catalyst utilizing ethanol as the reducing agent. In general, the SWCNT-Ru nanoparticle catalyst facilitated the degradation of Congo red dye solutions, of both low and high concentrations, within eight minutes at room temperature, and possessed great recoverability and reusability properties. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) analysis of the SWCNT-Ru nanoparticle catalyst, which was synthesized with 0.05 wt. % RuCl₃ in ethanol, revealed highly dispersed Ru nanoparticles of the averaged size of 2.0 nm ± 0.5 nm onto the single-walled carbon nanotube bundles. Raman spectroscopy analysis indicated that there was no alteration to the nanotube structural framework upon the formation of the Ru nanoparticles. UV-Visible spectroscopy analysis indicated that the electronic properties of both smaller and larger diameters of SWCNTs were altered upon the coordination of the Ru nanoparticles. In addition, studies showed that when using ethanol as a reducing agent, concentrations of the RuCl₃ salt must remain below 0.10 wt. % to facilitate the production of Ru nanoparticles with efficient catalytic properties.