Textile-supported silver nanoparticles as a highly efficient and recyclable heterogeneous catalyst for nitroaromatic reduction at room temperature.

A novel textile-based nanosilver catalyst was prepared with a facile synthetic method. The textile-supported nanosilver (TsNS) proved to be an excellent heterogeneous catalyst for the reduction of nitroaromatics with a broad substrate scope. It can be recycled for up to 6 times without significantly compromising its catalytic efficacy. The TsNS catalyst was developed into a column reactor, demonstrating its practical application with the advantages of low cost, ease of operation and large scale synthesis capabilities. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed that there were few changes to the catalyst's surface after the reaction. Besides, inductively coupled plasma (ICP) analysis showed that few silver particles leaked, and the interactions between the nitro groups of the nitroaromatics and the nanosilver particles were characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), which lead to the proposal of a four-step mechanism for the reduction reaction.