Nitrogen-doped bamboo-like carbon nanotubes with Ni encapsulation for persulfate activation to remove emerging contaminants with excellent catalytic stability

Nitrogen-doped bamboo-like carbon nanotubes encapsulated with nickel nanoparticles (Ni@NCNTs) were feasibly fabricated by a one-pot pyrolysis route. The characterization techniques revealed the surface morphology, structure and chemical composition of the as-prepared catalysts synthesized in differe...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Kang, J., Duan, Xiaoguang, Wang, C., Sun, H., Tan, X., Tade, Moses, Wang, Shaobin
Format: Journal Article
Published: Elsevier BV 2018
Online Access:http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP150103026
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/59216
Description
Summary:Nitrogen-doped bamboo-like carbon nanotubes encapsulated with nickel nanoparticles (Ni@NCNTs) were feasibly fabricated by a one-pot pyrolysis route. The characterization techniques revealed the surface morphology, structure and chemical composition of the as-prepared catalysts synthesized in different conditions. Ni@NCNTs were employed as both adsorbents and catalysts for activating persulfate to remove an emerging pollutant, antibiotic sulfachloropyridazine. The nitrogen modification enhanced both adsorption capacity and catalytic ability of Ni@NCNTs and proved to be a promising alternative to metal oxides and other carbon catalysts. Moreover, Ni@NCNTs showed an excellent stability because of nitrogen heteroatom doping and Ni nanoparticle encapsulation. Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and classical radical quenching tests discovered a simultaneous radical/non-radical mechanism in Ni@NCNTs/persulfate system. The results indicated that the novel nano-architectured catalyst materials can show emerging functionalities for environmental remediation processes.