Porous wood decorated with gold nanoparticles as flow-through membrane reactor for catalytic hydrogenation of methylene blue and 4-nitrophenol

Wood has a natural three-dimensional porous structure. As one main component of wood, lignin is rich in a variety of reducing functional groups which can in situ reduce Au (III) into Au (0). Through this efficient, green and convenient method, gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) were generated and anchored in Paulownia Sieb. et Zucc. Chip to fabricate an Au NP/Wood membrane reactor. The characterization of Au NP/Wood by SEM, XRD and XPS showed that Au NPs were uniformly dispersed in wood. The catalytic capacity of the reactor for the reduction of methylene blue (MB) and 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) were evaluated. The Au NP/Wood exhibited the substantial catalytic capacity and the reaction rate constants were 0.162 min−1 and 0.152 min−1, respectively. As the filter membrane, the flowing catalytic capacity investigation revealed that the hydrogenation of MB and 4-NP was over 98% as the flux was 0.973 × 103 L/m2·h. Even after eight cycles, the catalytic capacity of the membrane slightly decreased, while the hydrogenation still remained above 90%. This green synthetic Au NP/Wood has proved to be a viable and potential material for the treatment of dyes and nitroaromatic pollutants, in addition, using wood as a feedstock provides a sustainable feature of this work.