Oxygenated functional group-driven spontaneous fabrication of Pd nanoparticles decorated porous carbon nanosheets for electrocatalytic hydrodechlorination of 4-chlorophenol.

Researchers have been committed to reducing the hazardous pollutants by developing efficient catalysts while ignoring the pollution caused by the use of toxic surface capping agents, reductants and/or organic solvents in the catalyst preparation process. To alleviate such problems, we here report a novel one-step oxygenated functional group-driven electroless deposition strategy to synthesize clean and uniformly distributed Pd nanoparticles (NPs) using porous carbon nanosheets (PCN) as both substrates and reducing agents. It is observed that the oxygenated functional groups enriched PCN possesses a low work function and allows the spontaneous reduction of PdCl42- ions to Pd NPs deposited on the PCN support (Pd/PCN). The particle size of Pd NPs can be flexibly modulated by simply controlling the immersing time and thereby their maximum catalytic performances can be achieved. Specifically, the optimal Pd/PCN-08 with a Pd loading of 3.0 wt% shows an excellent activity with a turnover frequency of 0.38 min-1 for electrocatalytic hydrodechlorination (ECH) of 4-chlorophenol (4-CP), superior to the previously reported materials. The stability of Pd/PCN-08 for 4-CP ECH is impressive in repetitive cycles. This work proposes a facile and efficient strategy to synthesize high-performance catalysts for detoxifying the hazardous organic pollutants.