Sustainable and scalable natural fiber welded palladium-indium catalysts for nitrate reduction

In this work, we demonstrate the production of reactive, robust, sustainable catalysts for water treatment created through Natural Fiber Welding (NFW) of lignocellulose-supported palladium-indium (Pd-In) nanoparticles onto linen yarns. First, Pd-In catalysts were synthesized by incipient wetness onto ball-milled powders of linen. Our process preserved the lignocellulose, yielding small (5–10 nm), near-spherical crystalline nanoparticles of Pd-In alloy and a uniform Pd-In metal composition throughout the fibers. Nitrate reduction tests identified the existence of an optimum Pd-In catalyst composition (5 wt% Pd and 1.2 wt% In with respect to lignocellulose) for maximum reactivity; the most reactive Pd-In catalyst was 10 times more reactive than the best performing Pd-Cu nanoparticles deposited on lignocellulose using the same approach. This improved performance was most likely due to more uniform distribution of alloyed Pd-In nanoparticles throughout the support. Nitrate reduction tests and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy depth profiling of aged Pd-In catalysts showed that they remained stable and lost no reactivity during extended storage in air at room temperature. Next, the optimized Pd-In catalyst was fiber-welded onto linen yarns, using a custom-built yarn-coating system and a novel, scalable process that controlled catalyst loading, delivering a Pd-In catalyst coating onto the yarn surface. This fiber-welded Pd-In catalyst yarn was integrated into a novel water treatment reactor and evaluated during four months and more than 180 h of nitrate reduction tests in ultrapure water. During this evaluation, the fiber-welded catalysts maintained their reactivity with negligible metal leaching. When tested in raw or (partially) treated drinking water and wastewater, the fiber-welded catalysts were robust and stable, and their performance was not significantly impacted by constituents in the complex waters (e.g. alkalinity, organic matter). Our research demonstrates an innovative, scalable approach through NFW to design and implement robust, sustainable lignocellulose-supported catalysts with enhanced reactivity capable of water purification in complex water chemistries.