[Synthesis, characterization and electrocatalytic performance of Pd/CMK-3 for formic acid oxidation].

The synthesis of mesoporous carbons CMK-3 was implemented using SBA-15 samples as the hard templates and sucrose as the carbon source. Ordered mesoporous carbon CMK-3 supported palladium catalyst with a loading amount of 20% (Pd/CMK-3) was prepared by a complexing reduction method. XRD and TEM results showed that the p6mm hexagonal symmetric pore structures of CMK-3 were highly ordered and the Pd nanoparticles with the average size of 4. 2 nm and 4. 5 nm were well dispersed on CMK-3 and activated carbon (AC) surfaces respectively. Raman results revealed that CMK-3 presented higher graphitization and a higher electric conductivity than AC. The most probable pore size of CMK-3 was 4.5 nm, which is larger than that of AC (0.54 nm). The BET surface area of CMK-3 was 1 114 m2 x g(-1), which was also larger than that of AC(871 m2 x g(-1)). The mesoporous structure of CMK-3 was also observed. The Pd/CMK-3 catalyst exhibited more excellent initial electrocatalytic activity for formic acid oxidation than Pd/AC by cyclic voltammetry (CV). But the chronoamperometry (CA) demonstrated that the stability of the two catalysts were almost equal after 100 s polarization at 0.2 V (vs. SCE).

[Catalytic hydrodechlorination of 2,4-dichlorophenol over Pd/TiO2].

Pd/TiO2 catalysts were prepared by the deposition-precipitation and impregnation methods, and were further characterized by TEM, XRD and ICP-AES. The liquid catalytic hydrodechlorination of 2,4-dichlorophenol over the catalysts was investigated. It is demonstrated that despite catalyst prepared by deposition-precipitation method exhibits higher activity than that synthesized from impregnation method, both catalysts show good performance in hydrodechlorination process. When initial concentration of the reactant was 3.11 mmol x L(-1), pH was 12 and amount of catalyst used was 50 mg, hydrodechlorination of 2,4-dichlorophenol was completed within 45 min. Acidic condition facilitates hydrodechlorination process. The initial activity was not significantly influenced when the amount of catalyst used varied between 15-80 mg, which proves that mass transport limitation exerts little impact on hydrodechlorination reaction. Finally, the initial activity sharply enhanced with the increase of initial concentration of 2,4-dichlorophenol when the concentration was in the range of 0.62-3.11 mmo x L(-1) while it almost remained constant with further increasing the initial concentration. Therefore, the catalytic hydrodechlorination of 2,4-dichlorophenol over Pd/TiO2-DP follows the Langumuir-Hinshelwood model, indicating that the catalytic hydrodechlorination is controlled by 2,4-dichlorophenol adsorption.

[Adsorption of humic acid onto aminated HMS].

The adsorption of humic acid onto hexagonal mesoporous silica(HMS) and surface aminated HMS was investigated. The simulation results using Freundlich model indicated that the surface amination of HMS led to an increase of adsorption constant from 0.56 to 105, reflecting markedly enhanced adsorption of humic acid upon surface amination. In addition, humic acid adsorption under acidic conditions was favored. Adsorbed humic acid molecules were found to be located in the mesopores of aminated HMS and the mesopores with relatively larger pore diameters were preferentially occupied. The kinetics of humic acid adsorption onto the aminated HMS could be well described by second order kinetics and the adsorption rate was mainly dominated by intrapore diffusion process.

Photo-degradation of acid-red 3B dye catalyzed by TiO2 nanotubes.

TiO2 nanotube precursor was synthesized by the hydrothermal reaction of TiO2 powders with NaOH solution and the properties of the nanotube materials were tuned using different post-treatments. Transmission electron microscopic (TEM) observation revealed that the nanotube could be obtained by either a direct rinse with acid solution or rinse with distilled water followed by acid solution. The results of X-ray diffraction (XRD) and inductively coupled plasma (ICP) analysis indicated that the nanotube material was composed of H2Ti2O5 x H2O. In addition, the photocatalytic activities of the resulting catalysts were found to be strongly dependent on the post-treatment. The results of the photocatalytic reaction showed that the degradation of Acid-red 3B dye fitted pseudo-zero-order kinetics and TiO2 nanotube prepared under direct rinse with acid solution exhibited a higher catalytic efficiency compared to other catalysts.