Magnetic alginate-carboxymethyl cellulose to immobilize copper nanoparticles as a green and sustainable catalyst for 4-nitrophenol reduction.

In the present work, sustainable green catalysts with high activity, and excellent stability were prepared and thoroughly characterized by XRD, FT-IR, BET, VSM, SEM, EDX, HR-TEM, and TGA techniques. The combined sodium alginate (SA) and carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) biopolymers were functionalized with FeO nanoparticles to immobilize copper nanoparticles to form FeO@SA-CMC-CuNP nanocomposites in batch experiments. Furthermore, the FeO@SA-CMC-CuNP nanocomposites were utilized as the heterogeneous catalyst for 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) reduction to 4-aminophenol (4-AP) in the presence of NaBH, and the progress of the catalytic reaction was monitored using UV-visible spectrophotometry.

Highly efficient synthesis of biodiesel catalyzed by a cellulose@hematite-zirconia nanocomposite.

The depletion of fossil fuels calls for the development of renewable alternatives such as biodiesel and has inspired much research on catalysts for the production of biodiesel through the esterification of biomass-derived materials. Herein, a green heterogeneous catalyst for highly efficient biodiesel synthesis was fabricated from rice straw-derived cellulose, hematite, and zirconia and was shown to contain porous irregularly shaped α-FeO-ZrO composites (average particle size = 42.5 nm) evenly distributed on the nanocellulose surface.