Designing Pd-on-Au Bimetallic Nanoparticle Catalysts for Trichloroethene Hydrodechlorination

Abstract

Alumina-supported palladium (Pd) catalysts have previously been shown to hydrodechlorinate trichloroethene (TCE) and other chlorinated compounds in water, at room temperature, and in the presence of hydrogen. The feasibility of this catalytic technology to remediate groundwater of halogenated compounds can be improved by re-designing the Pd material in order to increase catalytic activity. We synthesized and characterized Pd supported on gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) of different Pd loadings. In all cases, we found that these catalysts were considerably more active than Pd NPs, alumina-supported Pd, and Pd-black (62.0, 12.2, and 0.42 L·g_Pd^-1·min^-1, respectively). There is a synergistic effect of the Pd-on-Au bimetallic structure, with the material with the highest TCE hydrodechlorination activity (943 L·g_Pd^-1·min^-1) comprised of Au NPs partially covered by Pd metal. The Pd-on-Au bimetallic catalyst structure provides a new synthesis approach in improving the catalytic properties of monometallic Pd materials. The resulting nanoparticle-based materials should be highly suitable as hydrodehalogenation and reduction catalysts for the remediation of various organic and inorganic groundwater contaminants.