Copper/nickel-decorated olive pit biochar: One pot solid state synthesis for environmental remediation

Abstract

Developing micro- and nanomaterials for environmental pollution remediation is currently a pertinent topic. Among the plethora of strategies, designing supported nanocatalysts for the degradation of pollutants has achieved prominence. In this context, we are addressing one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals by valorizing agrowaste as a source of biochar, which serves as a support for bimetallic nanocatalysts. Herein, olive pit powder particles were impregnated with copper and nickel nitrates and pyrolyzed at 400 °C. The resulting material consists of bimetallic CuNi-decorated biochar. CuNi nanocatalysts were found to be as small as 10 nm and very well dispersed over biochar with zero valent copper and nickel and the formation of copper–nickel solid solutions. The biochar@CuNi (B@CuNi) exhibited typical soft ferromagnet hysteresis loops with zero remanence and zero coercivity. The biochar@CuNi was found to be an efficient catalyst of the reduction in methyl orange (MO) dye, taken as a model pollutant. In sum, the one-pot method devised in this work provides unique CuNi-decorated biochar and broadens the horizons of the emerging topic of biochar-supported nanocatalysts.