Abstract

The unregulated discharge of nitroaromatics (NAs) and organic dye contaminants into aquatic ecosystems is a growing global concern, highlighting the urgent need for the development of effective wastewater treatment technology. In this study, we prepared Mo2C 2 C decorated on N- doped carbon flowers supported with PtNi bimetallic (PtxNiy@Mo2C/NCF) x Ni y @Mo 2 C/NCF) nanoparticles using the self-polymerization of dopamine and followed by the chemical reduction methods. These catalysts, with varying Pt:Ni ratios, were designed for the highly efficient catalytic reduction of NAs and rhodamine b (RhB) under the mild reaction conditions. The HR-TEM images confirmed the formation of spherical PtNi bimetallic NPs with an average diameter of 1.68 +/- 0.6 nm. The prepared PtxNiy@Mo2C/NCF x Ni y @Mo 2 C/NCF catalysts exhibited significantly higher catalytic efficiency for 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) reduction compared to their respective monometallic counterparts using NaBH4. 4 . Particularly, the Pt0.75Ni0.25@Mo2C/NCF 0.75 Ni 0.25 @Mo 2 C/NCF catalyst showed superior catalytic activity with the apparent rate constant ( k app : 0.6703 min- 1 ) and TOF (17.0 x 10-7mol- 7 mol mg-1 min- 1 ) and high recyclability over eight consecutive recycles. Furthermore, the Pt0.75Ni0.25@Mo2C/NCF 0.75 Ni 0.25 @Mo 2 C/NCF catalyst also exhibited high catalytic activity for other NAs and RhB dye reduction with excellent yields. This enhanced catalytic activity of Pt0.75Ni0.25@Mo2C/NCF 0.75 Ni 0.25 @Mo 2 C/NCF catalyst could be ascribed to the synergistic effect of the bimetallic systems, leading to more efficient reactions. Additional experiments were conducted on a fixed bed reactor to demonstrate that the Pt0.75Ni0.25@Mo2C/NCF 0.75 Ni 0.25 @Mo 2 C/NCF catalyst effectively reduce both 4-NP and RhB dye over 15 successive runs. This work may pave the way for using PtxNiy@Mo2C/NCF x Ni y @Mo 2 C/NCF catalysts in various wastewater treatment applications.