Water-soluble gold nanoparticles: recyclable catalysts for the reduction of aromatic nitro compounds in water

MONTI, GUSTAVO A.; CORREA, N. MARIANO; FALCONE, R. DARÍO; SILBESTRI, GUSTAVO F.; MOYANO, FERNANDO

RSC Advances

RSC

Año: 2020 vol. 10 p. 15065 - 15071

A structure/catalytic activity study of water-soluble gold nanoparticles, stabilized by zwitterionic ligandsderived from imidazolium salts, in the reduction of aromatic nitro compounds in pure water at differenttemperature, as well as their recyclability, was performed. Our studies indicate that the nanoparticlessynthesized by an easy, fast and reproducible process, need a short characteristic induction time torestructure the surfaces and make them active. The differences observed in the catalytic activity of thenanoparticles, determined by using the typical Langmuir?Hinshelwood model, are strongly based on thedegree of coverage and spatial arrangement of the imidazolium salts on them. Finally, we demonstratethat gold nanoparticles stabilized by non-traditional ligands can be an excellent choice for nitrocompound degradation.