Preparation of ultrafine Cu1.5Mn1.5O4 spinel nanoparticles and its application in p-nitrophenol reduction

In this work, ultrafine Cu_1.5Mn_1.5O₄ spinel nanoparticles were successfully synthesized by a sol–gel method combined with two complexing agents, which was firstly employed in the reductive transformation from p-nitrophenol into p-aminophenol. The effect of calcination temperature on the crystal phase and microstructure of Cu_1.5Mn_1.5O₄ nanoparticles was investigated in this article. It was found that Cu_1.5Mn_1.5O₄ nanoparticles with pure spinel phase can be obtained at 500 °C with the help of EDTA acid–citric acid complexing agents. Below 500 °C, there exists some Mn₂O₃ impure phase. SEM characterization indicated that the particle size of the spinel Cu_1.5Mn_1.5O₄ rapidly increases above 600 °C. The catalytic experimental results show that the Cu_1.5Mn_1.5O₄ nanoparticles prepared at 500 °C exhibit the highest catalytic activity which is even superior to some precious metal catalysts. With the calcination temperature increasing, the catalytic activity of Cu_1.5Mn_1.5O₄ spinel nanoparticles gradually degrades which can be ascribed to the particle size growth of Cu_1.5Mn_1.5O₄. It can also be observed that all the oxide samples, namely CuO, Mn₂O₃ and Cu_1.5Mn_1.5O₄, possess certain catalytic ability for the transformation from p-nitrophenol into p-aminophenol. However, the catalytic activity of Cu_1.5Mn_1.5O₄ spinel nanoparticles is obviously higher than CuO and Mn₂O₃. Especially, Mn₂O₃ alone has very poor catalytic activity in the reduction of p-nitrophenol.