Developing a facile and efficient method is an important approach for promising commercial catalytic applications. Toxic organic pollutants in waste waters are becoming a worldwide problem that threatens life on earth and prevents essential elements to sustain living organisms. Herein, the effect of catalyst support on the activity of copper oxide (CuO) nanoparticles for catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) in presence of sodium borohydride (NaBH₄)-aqueous medium was discussed. A simple and conventional wet impregnation method was used for the deposition of CuO nanoparticles on several metal oxides (Al₂O₃, SiO₂, MgO, CaO, ZnO, ZrO₂). The prepared catalysts were characterized via using techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), nitrogen sorption, inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM/EDS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The effect of support material on the catalytic performance of CuO nanoparticles for the reduction of 4-NP was evaluated and the performance order of support was ZrO₂ > Al₂O₃ > SiO₂ > CaO > MgO > ZnO. CuO/ZrO₂ catalyst exhibited excellent catalytic activity and the pseudo-first-order rate constant was determined as 15.97 · 10⁻³ s⁻¹. Considering the simple preparation process and the efficient catalytic reduction of 4-NP of CuO/ZrO₂, this study opens up a marvelous chance to this material for practical application of waste water treatment.

开发一种简便有效的方法是有前途的商业催化应用的重要方法。废水中的有毒有机污染物正在成为一个全球性问题，威胁着地球上的生命并阻止了维持生命有机体的必要元素。在此，讨论了在硼氢化钠（NaBH ₄）-水性介质存在下，催化剂载体对氧化铜（CuO）纳米粒子催化还原4-硝基苯酚（4-NP）的活性的影响。使用一种简单的常规湿法浸渍法将CuO纳米颗粒沉积在几种金属氧化物（Al ₂ O ₃，SiO ₂，MgO，CaO，ZnO，ZrO ₂）。所制备的催化剂通过使用X射线衍射（XRD），氮吸附，电感耦合等离子体发射光谱（ICP-OES），扫描电子显微镜/能量色散X射线光谱（SEM / EDS），透射电子显微镜（TEM）和X射线光电子能谱（XPS）。评价了载体材料对CuO纳米颗粒催化4-NP还原的催化性能的影响，载体的性能顺序为ZrO ₂  > Al ₂ O ₃  > SiO ₂  > CaO> MgO> ZnO。CuO / ZrO ₂催化剂表现出优异的催化活性，拟一级反应速率常数确定为15.97·10 ^-3 s^-1。考虑到简单的制备工艺和4-NP的CuO / ZrO ₂的有效催化还原，这项研究为这种材料在废水处理中的实际应用开辟了绝妙的机会。