AMORPHOUS SILICA-SUPPORTED ZrO2-WO3 MESOPOROUS NANOCOMPOSITE FROM AGRO-INDUSTRIAL WASTE (COCONUT COIR): SUSTAINABLE HETEROGENEOUS CATALYST FOR 4H-CHROMENE SYNTHESIS
Keywords:
coconut coir, silica, mesoporous, nanocomposite, heterogeneous catalyst, multicomponent reaction
Abstract
This study presents a green and cost-effective preparation of amorphous silica-supported ZrO2-WO3 mesoporous nanocomposite from agro-industrial waste, specifically coconut coir. Amorphous silica (AS) was obtained through a sustainable extraction process from coconut coir, and the amorphous silica-supported-ZrO2-WO3 (ASS-ZWOM) nanocomposite was prepared using the wet impregnation technique. The structural features and compositional details of the prepared ASS-ZWOM nanocomposite were evaluated using several advanced analytical techniques. FT-IR analysis confirmed the Si-O-Si vibrations, and the composite exhibited additional Zr-O and W-O bands, indicating the successful metal oxide incorporation. FE-SEM images revealed that the nanocomposites are below 100 nm. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy was used for element composition, and Raman spectroscopy for studying molecular vibrations. BET measurement demonstrated mesoporosity with a surface area of 2.68 m2/g and a pore diameter of 2.36 nm. This study highlights the potential of agro-industrial waste-derived materials for producing high-performance catalysts, demonstrating a sustainable catalytic route for synthesizing 4H-chromene.
References
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26. Granados-Correa F, Bulbulian S. Influence of textural properties and surface fractal dimensions on the cobalt adsorption behavior of rice hull ash prepared via solid combustion. J Porous Mater 2017;28:641–648. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10934-017-0460-6.
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31. Bui TH, Le TH, Pham TK, Pham HQ. Zirconium doped MCM-41 supported WO₃ solid acid catalysts for the esterification of oleic acid with methanol. Appl Catal A Gen 2010;379:61–68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apcata.2010.03.001.
32. Aziz A, Shaheen S, Nayem SMA, Shaikh MN, Saeed A, Akolade I. Peat soil-derived silica doped porous graphitic carbon with high yield for high-performance all-solid-state symmetric supercapacitors. Carbon Lett 2022;32:427–436. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42823-022-00393-3.
2. Costa AS, Paranhos CM. Mitigation of silica-rich wastes: An alternative to the synthesis of eco-friendly silica-based mesoporous materials. Microporous Mesoporous Mater 2020;309:110570. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.micromeso.2020.110570.
3. Azizi SN, Ghasemi S, Yazdani-Sheldarrei H. Synthesis of mesoporous silica (SBA-16) nanoparticles using silica extracted from stem cane ash and its application in electrocatalytic oxidation of methanol. Int J Hydrogen Energy 2013;38(36):16518–16524. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2013.07.086.
4. Manimaran S, Subramanian K, Tschentscher R, Pandurangan A. Epoxidation of alkene using bi-functional metal oxide supported SBA-16 catalyst. J Porous Mater 2022;29:1025–1037. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10934-021-01170-5.
5. Morales-Paredes DM, Rodríguez-Linz I, Luque R, Osman SM, Boluda-Botella N, et al. Silica-derived materials from agro-industrial waste biomass: Characterization and comparative studies. Environ Res 2023;231:116002. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2023.116002.
6. Santiesteban JG, Vartuli JC, Han S, Bastian RD, Chang CD. Influence of the preparative method on the activity of highly acidic WOₓ/ZrO₂ and the relative acid activity compared with zeolites. J Catal 1997;168:431–441. https://doi.org/10.1006/jcat.1997.1658.
7. Hino M. Acid catalysis by solid superacids. Mater Chem Phys 1990;26(3):213–237. https://doi.org/10.1016/0254-0584(90)90059-J.
8. Wang H, Guo Y, Chang C, Zhu X, Liu X, Han J, et al. Enhancing tungsten oxide/SBA-15 catalysts for hydrolysis of cellobiose through doping ZrO₂. Appl Catal A Gen 2016;523:182–192. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apcata.2016.06.006.
9. Ramesh R, Maheswari S, Malecki JG. NaN₃ catalyzed highly convenient access to functionalized 4H-chromenes: A green one-pot approach for diversity amplification. Polycycl Aromat Compd 2019;39(8):609–622. https://doi.org/10.1080/10406638.2018.1564678.
10. Skommer J, Wlodkowic D, Pelkonen J, Darzynkiewicz Z. HA14-1, a small molecule Bcl-2 antagonist, induces apoptosis and modulates action of selected anticancer drugs in follicular lymphoma B cells. Leuk Res 2006;30(3):322–331. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leukres.2005.08.022.
11. Abdel E, Hafez A, Elnagdi MH. A novel synthesis of benzo[4,5]pyrano[2,3-c]quinoline derivatives. Tetrahedron Lett 1987;26(12):1417–1420. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0040-4039(00)82357-7.
12. Eastman Kodak Company. New coumarin dyes with rigidized structure for flashlamp-pumped dye lasers. Appl Phys Lett 1975;13(1):3–6. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1654967.
13. Balamurugan M, Saravanan S. Producing nanosilica from Sorghum vulgare seed heads. Powder Technol 2012;224:345–350. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.powtec.2012.03.017.
14. Pandurangan A, Manimaran S. Green and recyclable mesoporous silica supported WO₃–ZrO₂ solid acid catalyst for biodiesel production by transesterification of Ankol seed oil with methanol. Biomass Convers Biorefin 2023;13:1543–1554. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-021-01825-2.
15. Sigamani S, Thirunavukkarasu D, Rajarajan M. Synthesis of SiO₂ nanoparticles by sol-gel method and their optical and structural properties. Mater Today Proc 2021;45:5956–5961. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2021.01.237.
16. Shokri B, Abbasi-Firouzjah M, Hosseini SI. FTIR analysis of silicon dioxide thin film deposited by metal organic-based methods. Surf Coat Technol 2009;203(8):1083–1088. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.surfcoat.2008.08.071.
17. Narang S, Rani S, Aghamkar P, Kumar S. Structural investigations on Nd-doped silica nanocomposites: Effect of sintering temperature and dopant concentration. Mater Sci Semicond Process 2014;27:503–513. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mssp.2014.06.030.
18. Verma S, Rani S, Kumar S. Tetragonal zirconia quantum dots in silica matrix prepared by a modified sol–gel protocol. Appl Phys A Mater Sci Process 2018;124:1806. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-018-1806-z.
19. Bhaskar S, Awin EW, Kumar KCH, Lale A, Bernard S, Kumar R. Design of nanoscaled heterojunctions in precursor-derived t-ZrO₂/SiOC(N) nanocomposites: Transgressing the boundaries of catalytic activity from UV to visible light. Sci Rep 2020;10:1543. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-57394-8.
20. Goldmane AE, Avotina L, Romanova M, Muhin A, Zaslavskis A, Kizane G, et al. FTIR analysis of oxidized tungsten and tungsten diboride nanolayers. Key Eng Mater 2022;923:376–380. https://doi.org/10.4028/p-6mtmzn.
21. Zhou L, Du Y, Jin Y, Chen W, Pan Q, Kai W, et al. Grinding-induced solvent-free synthesis of mesoporous zirconia-supported tungsten oxide composite and its superior oxidative desulfurization performance. Fuel 2022;315:123181. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2022.123181.
22. Varisli D, Dogu T, Dogu G. Novel mesoporous nanocomposite WOₓ-silicate acidic catalysts: Ethylene and diethylether from ethanol. Appl Catal A Gen 2009;371:94–101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apcata.2009.09.033.
23. Rajendran S, Jusoh NWC, Ainirazali N. Integrating ZnO with fibrous silica zirconia p–n heterojunction for effective photoredox of hexavalent chromium and congo red. J Water Process Eng 2024;59:105050. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwpe.2024.105050.
24. ZrO S, Catauro M, Barrino F, Dal G, Milazzo M, Blanco I, et al. Structure, drug absorption, bioactive and antibacterial properties of sol–gel derived materials. Ceram Int 2020;46(11):17624–17632. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ceramint.2020.03.167.
25. Maseko NN, Schneider D, Wassersleben S, Enke D, Iwarere SA, Pocock J, et al. Production of biogenic silica from different South African agricultural residues through a thermo-chemical treatment method. Mater Today Proc 2021;38:64–71. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.05.497.
26. Granados-Correa F, Bulbulian S. Influence of textural properties and surface fractal dimensions on the cobalt adsorption behavior of rice hull ash prepared via solid combustion. J Porous Mater 2017;28:641–648. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10934-017-0460-6.
27. Arnaldo JC, Costa S, Paranhos CM. Systematic evaluation of amorphous silica production from rice husk ashes. J Clean Prod 2018;196:674–681. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.05.028.
28. Lehman SE, Larsen SC. Zeolite and mesoporous silica nanomaterials: Greener syntheses, environmental applications and biological toxicity. Environ Sci Nano 2014;1:200–213. https://doi.org/10.1039/C4EN00031E.
29. Chavan PS, Shedge PS, Deshmukh SS, Bhandalkar RR, Sutar SH, Mujawar SH. Electrodeposited tungsten trioxide (WO₃) thin films for electrochromic applications. Mater Today Proc 2024;96:27–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2024.01.146.
30. Ashiq MN, Aman A, Alshahrani T, Iqbal F, Razzaq A, Najam-ul-Haq M, et al. Enhanced electrochemical properties of silver-coated zirconia nanoparticles for supercapacitor applications. Nanomaterials 2021;11(2):318. https://doi.org/10.3390/nano11020318.
31. Bui TH, Le TH, Pham TK, Pham HQ. Zirconium doped MCM-41 supported WO₃ solid acid catalysts for the esterification of oleic acid with methanol. Appl Catal A Gen 2010;379:61–68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apcata.2010.03.001.
32. Aziz A, Shaheen S, Nayem SMA, Shaikh MN, Saeed A, Akolade I. Peat soil-derived silica doped porous graphitic carbon with high yield for high-performance all-solid-state symmetric supercapacitors. Carbon Lett 2022;32:427–436. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42823-022-00393-3.
Published
2026-02-02
How to Cite
1.
Maria Arul FrancisS, Rajan BabuSS, Rasappan V, Thiruvengadam V. AMORPHOUS SILICA-SUPPORTED ZrO2-WO3 MESOPOROUS NANOCOMPOSITE FROM AGRO-INDUSTRIAL WASTE (COCONUT COIR): SUSTAINABLE HETEROGENEOUS CATALYST FOR 4H-CHROMENE SYNTHESIS. MatTech [Internet]. 2026Feb.2 [cited 2026Aug.10];60(1):31–39. Available from: https://mater-tehnol.si/index.php/MatTech/article/view/1437
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