A novel catalyst containing palladium nanoparticles supported on PVP composite nanofiber films: Synthesis, characterization and efficient catalysis

This paper studied the preparation of Pd nanoparticles/PVP composite nanofiber membranes catalyst. In the experiment, reductant was ethanol and PVP (polyvinyl pyrrolidone) served as the protecting agent as well as supporter of palladium nanoparticles. Pd nanoparticles/PVP sol was examined by UV–vis absorbance spectra (UV–vis); Pd NPs/PVP nanofibers were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM). The Pd NPs/PVP nanofibers films catalyst was applied to catalytic hydrogenation of aryl nitro compounds reduction and Heck reactions to test the catalytic activity, products were characterized by gas chromatograph (GC) and gas chromatograph mass spectrometer (GC–MS). Results showed that the diameters of Pd NPs were 3–10 nm and the Pd NPs/PVP nanofibers films catalyst possessed high-activity, improved the selectivity and yield, the conversion rate of paratoluidine was 74.36%, N-butyl cinnamate esters conversion rate still exceed 99% after catalyst be used three times. It overcomes the problems that palladium has leached badly and recovery difficultly in conventional homogeneous palladium catalyst field, and have a broad foreground of catalyst applications.