Template-Synthesized Nano/Microtubes And Micro-Spheres Via Electroless Plating And Their Catalytic Activity Investigation

Recently, organic, inorganic and metallic tubular nanostructures have arousedconsiderable interest due to their exceptional physical properties and potentialapplications as gas and fluid paths or reservoirs in catalysis, fuel cells, sensors, andseparation systems. Template synthesis is a widely accepted method for preparingtubular nanostructures because of its ability to control the dimensions of nanotubes.The preparation of metal nano-tubes, micro-tubes and micro-spheres viaelectroless plating using carbon nanofibres (CNFs), natural spider silk fibres and glassmicro-spheres as templates were investigated in this paper. The process included thepretreatment of the templates, electroless plating, removing of the templates and thereduction treatment. The final products were characterized by Scanning ElectronMicroscopy (SEM), Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM), Energy DispersiveX-ray Spectrometer (EDX) and X-ray powder Diffractometer (XRD). The results showthat different metal nano-tubes, micro-tubes and micro-spheres can be prepared byelectroless plating using different structure templates. In this method, it is convenientto control the dimension and the shape of the obtained products by using differenttemplates and controlling deposition time.The catalytic activity of different structure Ni-P products was also studied in this paper. The liquid-phase hydrogenation of nitrobenzene reaction system was used totest the catalytic activity. Under the same experimental condition, the order of theconversion rate of nitrobenzene was Ni-P(hollow spheres)＞Ni-P(tubes, spider silk)＞Raney-Ni＞＞Ni-P(tubes, 480℃). After utilized 5 times, the life-span of the Ni-P(hollow spheres) was the best one among all the catalysts. The catalytic activity ofNi-P(tubes, 480℃) decreased after used 2～3 times. The experimental results revealedthat the catalytic activity of those Ni-P noncrystalline alloy catalysts is better thancrystal alloy catalYst and the structure of catalysts is also important to the catalyticactivity.