Abstract:
One of the promising applications of nanomaterials is to use them as catalysts and sorbents
to remove toxic pollutants such as nitroaromatic compounds and heavy metal ions for environmental
protection. This work reports the synthesis of Cu/CuO-deposited composite track-etched membranes
through low-temperature annealing and their application in catalysis and sorption. The synthesized
Cu/CuO/poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) composites presented efficient catalytic activity with high
conversion yield in the reduction of nitro aryl compounds to their corresponding amino derivatives.
It has been found that increasing the time of annealing raises the ratio of the copper(II) oxide (CuO)
tenorite phase in the structure, which leads to a significant increase in the catalytic activity of the
composites. The samples presented maximum catalytic activity after 5 h of annealing, where the ratio
of CuO phase and the degree of crystallinity were 64.3% and 62.7%, respectively. The catalytic activity
of pristine and annealed composites was tested in the reduction of 4-nitroaniline and was shown
to remain practically unchanged for five consecutive test cycles. Composites annealed at 140 ◦C
were also tested for their capacity to absorb arsenic(III) ions in cross-flow mode. It was observed
that the sorption capacity of composite membranes increased by 48.7% compared to the pristine
sample and reached its maximum after 10 h of annealing, then gradually decreased by 24% with
further annealing.
