Engineering a Cu2Er2O5 Nanocatalyst for Rapid Room-Temperature Catalytic Reduction of Nitrophenol Pollutants

In the current work, a simple process utilizing the thermal decomposition of an oxalate precursor has successfully produced highly successful Cu2Er2O5 nanoparticles. Analytical methods including XRD, FT-IR, thermal analysis, SEM, EDS, UV-Vis spectroscopy, and BET analysis were used to thoroughly characterize the produced nanoparticles. When 4-nitrophenol was reduced to 4-aminophenol using sodium borohydride in an aqueous environment at room temperature, the produced Cu2Er2O5 nanoparticles demonstrated outstanding catalytic efficiency. With 4-NP conversion into 4-AP (>97.8%) in just 12 min, the catalyst showed excellent catalytic efficacy. Moreover, the kinetics of the 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) reduction were investigated. The reaction exhibited an apparent rate constant of 0.43 min−1 and was well described by a pseudo-first-order kinetic model. To further examine the catalytic reaction process, the Arrhenius parameters for the catalytic hydrogenation reaction of 4-NP were computed. Additionally, over the course of five consecutive catalytic test cycles, the catalyst showed outstanding stability and reusability with a minor drop in catalytic activity. In order to eliminate nitro compounds in the aqueous system, this study may offer a new, effective, and environmentally promising metal oxide nanocatalyst. Furthermore, with 91.8% conversion of 4-NP in the five cycles, the Cu2Er2O5 NPs demonstrated good reusability.