Bamboo-inspired design of a stable and high-efficiency catalytic capillary microreactor for nitroaromatics reduction

A stable and high-efficiency bamboo-inspired catalytic capillary microreactor (CMR) decorated with Ag nanoparticles (NPs) is skillfully designed for the continuous-flow reduction of nitroaromatics. By a novel continuous-flow method, Ag NPs are mainly dispersed around the long microchannels uniformly and firmly in bamboo vascular bundle. The bioinspired CMR achieves a continuously effective fluid flow while maintaining the high reactivity of Ag catalyst in the reduction of four nitroaromatics and shows good long-term stability where the catalytic performance remained at 90% within 11 h of five cycles. The detection of H• radical adducts indicated that Ag NPs adsorb the BH4− ions to form the Ag–H species. The exceptional pore channel of CMR with a large surface area provides active sites readily accessible and facilitates H• radicals and electrons transfer to sinaficantly enhance nitroaromatic reduction. This sustainable bamboo-inspired design can greatly impel the future development of renewable catalysis system for wider applications. [Display omitted] •A high-efficiency bamboo-inspired catalytic capillary microreactor was fabricated.•Microreactor inherits all structure features and mechanical strength from bamboo.•Long, aligned microchannel contribute to Ag generation and nitroaromatic transport.•The continuous-flow catalytic performance remained 90% within 11 h over 5 recycles.•The reduction mechanisms and influence factors on the catalysis are discussed.