Low-Temperature Synthesis of Magnetically Recoverable CuFe2O4 Nanocatalysts for Ultrafast 4-Nitroaniline Reduction at Room Temperature
摘要
The development of reusable catalysts through simple and environmentally friendly methods for the selective and rapid reduction of 4-nitroaniline to p-phenylenediamine is a highly desirable research area. In this study, magnetic CuFe2O4 nanoparticles were synthesized for the first time via a new and facile coprecipitation–mild thermal stirring method at different pH values. According to the experimental results, the cubic spinel CuFe2O4 phase became the dominant component in the phase composition only when the samples were prepared under high pH conditions (11 and 13) during coprecipitation, followed by mild thermal stirring at 90 °C for 2 h. Among the samples, the catalyst prepared at pH 11 exhibited the highest content of the cubic spinel CuFe2O4 phase, along with elevated surface concentrations of Cu2+ and Fe3+ ions and a mesoporous morphology with high specific surface area. These features enabled the catalyst to achieve ultrafast reduction of 4-nitroaniline to p-phenylenediamine in just 60 s, with a rate constant reaching 4.706 min–1. Moreover, this catalyst demonstrated strong ferromagnetic properties, facilitating easy recovery and reuse for multiple cycles, thereby underscoring its potential as a sustainable catalyst for the efficient synthesis of p-phenylenediamine.