Preparation of palladium nanoparticles deposited on a silanized hollow fiber ceramic membrane support and their catalytic properties

An efficient and reusable catalyst was developed by depositing palladium nanoparticles on a hollow fiber ceramic membrane support in which the support surface was silanized with aminofunctional silane. In the present work, the hollow fiber ceramic membrane support was used for catalyst immobilization only. The as-prepared Pd-loaded hollow fiber ceramic membrane support was extensively characterized by ICP, FESEM, EDS, XPS, and HRTEM, and the hydrogenation of p-nitrophenol to p-aminophenol was used as a model reaction to evaluate its catalytic properties. For comparison the palladium nanoparticles were also deposited on a tubular ceramic membrane support. The catalytic activity of Pd-loaded hollow fiber ceramic membrane support is significantly higher than that of Pd-loaded tubular ceramic membrane support. The hollow ceramic fibers can provide more membrane area for the deposition of palladium nanoparticles at the same volume of membrane module, and a higher palladium loading is obtained, and their pore structure is beneficial for the reactants to diffuse onto the catalyst surface, leading to a higher catalytic activity.