One-step green synthesis of bimetallic Fe/Pd nanoparticles used to degrade Orange II

Highlights: • Green synthesis of bimetallic Fe/Pd NPs was firstly reported using the one-step method. • 98.0% of Orange II was removed by Fe/Pd NPs, but only 16.0% by Fe NPs. • Fe/Pd NPs with a diameter ranging from 10 to 100 nm were observed. • Removing Orange II using Fe/Pd NPs involved both adsorption and catalytic degradation. - Abstract: To reduce cost and enhance reactivity, bimetallic Fe/Pd nanoparticles (NPs) were firstly synthesized using grape leaf aqueous extract to remove Orange II. Green synthesized bimetallic Fe/Pd NPs (98.0%) demonstrated a far higher ability to remove Orange II in 12 h compared to Fe NPs (16.0%). Meanwhile, all precursors, e.g., grape leaf extract, Fe²⁺ and Pd²⁺, had no obvious effect on removing Orange II since less than 2.0% was removed. Kinetics study revealed that the removal rate fitted well to the pseudo-first-order reduction and pseudo-second-order adsorption model, meaning that removing Orange II via Fe/Pd NPs involved both adsorption and catalytic reduction. The remarkable stability of Fe/Pd NPs showed the potential application for removing azo dyes. Furthermore, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) confirmed the changes in Fe/Pd NPs before and after reaction with Orange II. High Performance Liquid Chromatography–Mass Spectrum (HPLC–MS) identified the degraded products in the removal of Orange II, and finally a removal mechanism was proposed. This one-step strategy using grape leaf aqueous extract to synthesize Fe/Pd NPs is simple, cost-effective and environmentally benign, making possible the large-scale production of Fe/Pd NPs for field remediation.