The development of novel Au/CaO nanoribbons from bifunctional building block for biodiesel production

Herein, a novel and facile high-yield strategy is reported to efficiently fabricate 1D self-supported Au/CaO nanocatalysts using dual metal co-ordination polymers as templates. Significantly, a uniform distribution of dual metal nanoparticles can be ensured due to the fact that both Ca²⁺ and Au³⁺ ions are initially introduced into the co-ordination polymer via chemical bonding with bifunctional organic linkers and then, the Au and CaO nanoparticles are formed simultaneously in one pot via calcination. Furthermore, the as-prepared Au/CaO nanoribbons exhibit excellent catalytic performance in the transesterification reaction, which can be attributed to the small size and high distribution of CaO nanoparticles as well as the special 1D structure with high surface area. Moreover, leaching and deactivation, which are the main problems of CaO-based catalysts, are remarkably reduced due to the presence of hydrophobic Au nanoparticles on the surface of the CaO nanoribbons. Consequently, the Au/CaO nanoribbons can be used as recyclable catalysts with high activity for biodiesel production.