Mesoporous materials are promising metal catalyst supports due to their highly ordered pores with controllable sizes and large specific areas. Composite core-shell materials combining mesoporous shells with non-porous cores (e.g., magnetite nanoparticles that facilitate separation), are regarded as promising materials for environmental applications. In this study, we design and synthesize composite material possessing either inert silica or paramagnetic core together with a mesoporous silica outer shell containing perpendicular open channels. Variable hydrogenation metal nanoparticles are loaded either at the core-shell interface or throughout the mesoporous channels with surface. New synthetic methodologies via particle surface charge tuning are developed to overcome challenges of nanoparticle aggregation during the synthesis. The materials are characterized with scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and physisorption and chemisorption analysis. Investigations are in progress to evaluate the catalytic kinetics of these composites reducing a range of aqueous contaminants, including oxyanions (e.g., nitrate, chlorate, bromate) and halogenated hydrocarbons (e.g., bromo, chloro and fluoro organic compounds). These materials significantly expand the breadth of current nanostructured catalysts and provide new perspectives for large-scale applications.

Multifunctional nanostructured composite materials for highly active reductive catalysis water treatment applications

249th National Meeting (2015)

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