Cellulose Aerogel Supported Graphene Quantum Dots/Pt Catalyst

With increasing the importance of green chemistry in human life, heterogeneous catalysts have gained a special place in the catalyst research. Introduction of a large number of heterogeneous catalysts created a competition for selecting a best heterogenized catalytic system for a reaction. High efficiency, non-toxicity, biocompatibility and recyclability are some of the challenging for heterogeneous catalysts. For affording the mentioned conditions various supports such as silica, cellulose, zeolite, alumina, titania and carbon nanotube were applied. Among the supports, cellulose has been attracted great attentions due to some advantages such as hydrophilicity, chirality, biodegradability and high functionality [1-3]. The development of sustainable and efficient catalysts for the oxidation of organic substrates such as alkylarenes is an attractive and challenging work respect to the industrial importance of the oxidation reactions [4,5]. Herein, cellulose aerogel was modified with graphene quantum dots (GQD) and Pt nanoparticles. The catalyst after characterization was used as a heterogeneous catalyst in the oxidation reaction of ethylbenzene at room temperature. High yield and excellent conversion was obtained in green reaction conditions. The catalyst is recyclable for six times without any significant reduction in the yield.