Sulfonated graphene solid acid catalysts could be cheap, environmentally friendly alternatives to concentrated sulfuric acid for use in industry because they can be recycled, say scientists from China.
Xiaobin Fan, at Tianjin University, and colleagues made the catalyst by adding 4-benzenediazoniumsulfonate to a graphene suspension. When they tested its activity against other catalysts in ethyl acetate hydrolysis, they found that it had comparable activity to concentrated sulfuric acid catalysts and had higher activity than Nafion NR50, a commercial solid acid known for its excellent activity.
Acid sites in most solid catalysts can be degraded by water in reactions, but Fan’s catalyst is stable in water and can be reused without decrease in activity.
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