Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 16, 2025
Synthesis and Catalytic Performance of Gold Intercalated in the Walls of Mesoporous Silica
Published on: July 9, 2015
Mesoporous Silica (MCM-41) Containing Dispersed Palladium Nanoparticles as Catalyst for Dehydrogenation,
Noor Ul Huda1, Anwar Ul-Hamid2, Muhammad Abdullah Khan3
1Department of chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Syed Babar Ali School of Science and Engineering, Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Sector U, DHA, Lahore, 54792, Pakistan.
Abstract:
Generating highly dispersed metal NPs of the desired size on surfaces such as porous silica is challenging due to wettability issues. Here, we report highly active and well-dispersed Pd incorporated mesoporous MCM-41 (Pd@MCM) using a facile impregnation via a molecular approach based on hydrogen bonding interaction of a palladium β-diketone complex with surface silanol groups of mesoporous silica. Controlled thermal treatment of so obtained materials in air, argon, and hydrogen provided the catalysts characterized by electron microscopy, nitrogen physisorption, X-ray diffraction and spectroscopy. Gratifyingly, our catalyst provided the lowest ever activation energy (14.3 kJ/mol) reported in literature for dehydrogenation of NaBH4 . Moreover, the rate constant (7×10-3 s-1 ) for the reduction of 4-nitrophenol outperformed the activity of commercial Pd/C (4×10-3 s-1 ) and Pd/Al2 O3 (5×10-3 s-1 ) catalysts.
