Silver and palladium alloy nanoparticle catalysts: reductive coupling of nitrobenzene through light irradiation

Abstract

Silver–palladium (Ag–Pd) alloy nanoparticles strongly absorb visible light and exhibit significantly higher photocatalytic activity compared to both pure palladium (Pd) and silver (Ag) nanoparticles. Photocatalysts of Ag–Pd alloy nanoparticles on ZrO₂ and Al₂O₃ supports are developed to catalyze the nitroaromatic coupling to the corresponding azo compounds under visible light irradiation. Ag–Pd alloy NP/ZrO₂ exhibited the highest photocatalytic activity for nitrobenzene coupling to azobenzene (yield of ∼80% in 3 hours). The photocatalytic efficiency could be optimized by altering the Ag : Pd ratio of the alloy nanoparticles, irradiation light intensity, temperature and wavelength. The rate of the reaction depends on the population and energy of the excited electrons, which can be improved by increasing the light intensity or by using a shorter wavelength. The knowledge developed in this study may inspire further studies on Ag alloy photocatalysts and organic syntheses using Ag–Pd nanoparticle catalysts driven under visible light Irradiation.