A facile electrostatic droplets assisted synthesis of copper nanoparticles embedded magnetic carbon microspheres for highly effective catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol and Rhodamine B

Abstract Herein, copper nanoparticles embedded magnetic carbon (Cu/MC) microspheres are fabricated by combing of electrostatic droplets (ESD) process and thermal treatment. In the method, sodium alginate hydrogel spheres with Fe3O4 nanoparticles (Fe3O4 NPs) are prepared in an ESD process, which are solidified using a CuCl2 solution. The formed metal-organic hybrid hydrogel spheres are served as copper and carbon sources in a following thermal decomposition procedure. The morphology and structure of the as-obtained Cu/MC microspheres are systematically studied. The results of the characterization demonstrate that Fe3O4 NPs and Cu NPs are immobilized in the mesoporous carbon microspheres. Furthermore, the resulting Cu/MC microspheres exhibit not only excellent catalytic performance for the reduction of 4-nitrophenol and Rhodamine B, but also excellent reuse exploitability due to their magnetic response to an external magnetic field. Overall, the Cu/MC microspheres prepared in the work show great promise for degradation of toxic dyes.