Janus coordination polymer derived PdO/ZnO nanoribbons for efficient 4-nitrophenol reduction

Abstract

We designed a facile and green self-assembly route for the large-scale production of bimetallic coordination polymer–Zn(MAA)₂/Pd(II) nanoribbons by employing two terminal units with distinct hard–soft properties of the smallest semi-rigid methacrylate anion (MAA⁻) to combine with two different metal ions. The COO⁻ (chemically hard base) served as the initial unit, which was applied to coordinate with the Zn²⁺ ions for constructing the host network of this Janus CPs by facilely adjusting the proportion of ethanol/water to control the degree of solvation. After soaking in an ethanol solution of PdCl₂, the alkene units (chemically soft base) act as secondary donors to load the soft noble metal Pd²⁺ ions and form Zn(MAA)₂/Pd(II) nanoribbons, which are ideal precursors of ZnO/PdO nanoribbons. By pyrolyzing the dual metal ion equipped Zn(MAA)₂/Pd(II) precursors, ZnO nanoribbon supported PdO nanoparticles (NPs) with a well-defined structure were facilely fabricated on a large scale. Furthermore, the as-obtained ZnO/PdO nanoribbons exhibit efficient catalytic performance for the reduction of 4-NP, which can convert 99.3% of the substrates within 6 min. This superior catalytic performance may be attributed to the well-dispersed PdO nanoparticles as well as the absence of additional agents introduced a green synthetic method.