title: Conversion of chicken feather waste to N-doped carbon nanotubes for the catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol.
abstract: Poultry feather is renewable, inexpensive and abundantly available. It holds great business potentials if poultry feather can be converted into valuable functional materials. Herein, we describe a strategy for the catalytic conversion of chicken feather waste to Ni3S2-carbon coaxial nanofibers (Ni3S2@C) which can be further converted to nitrogen doped carbon nanotubes (N-CNTs). Both Ni3S2@C and N-CNTs exhibit high catalytic activity and good reusability in the reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) to 4-aminophenol (4-AP) by NaBH4 with a first-order rate constant (k) of 0.9 × 10(-3) s(-1) and 2.1 × 10(-3) s(-1), respectively. The catalytic activity of N-CNTs is better than that of N-doped graphene and comparable to commonly used noble metal catalysts. The N content in N-CNTs reaches as high as 6.43%, which is responsible for the excellent catalytic performance. This strategy provides an efficient and low-cost method for the comprehensive utilization of chicken feathers. Moreover, this study provides a new direction for the application of N-CNTs.
authors.affiliation: Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale and Department of Materials Science & Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China , Hefei, China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Ran
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Xuelin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Sui
authors.forename: Ren
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Changle
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Qianwang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002244:Carbon / Q000737:chemistry; D002384:Catalysis; D002645:Chickens; D005241:Feathers / Q000737:chemistry*; D057139:Nanofibers / Q000737:chemistry / Q000648:ultrastructure; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000737:chemistry*; D009596:Nitrophenols / Q000737:chemistry*; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D056951:Photoelectron Spectroscopy; D013056:Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet; D013059:Spectrum Analysis, Raman; D014866:Waste Products / Q000032:analysis*; D014961:X-Ray Diffraction
chemical_list: D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon; D009596:Nitrophenols; D014866:Waste Products; D002244:Carbon; D009584:Nitrogen; C024836:4-nitrophenol