In situ synthesized gold nanoparticles in hydrogels for catalytic reduction of nitroaromatic compounds

Developing hydrogel systems featured by catalytic active is of importance to construct highly effective platforms for removing environmental pollutants/hazardous substances or for bio-/chemosensing. Reported herein are our recent finding that Au nanoparticles could be in situ prepared in chitosan-AuIII hydrogel system via photoreduction, and the as-prepared Au nanoparticles could be employed for the catalytic reduction of a series of nitroaromatic compounds by sodium borohydride (NaBH4). Experimental conditions of synthesizing Au nanoparticles, including pH, concentration of AuIII, and light irradiation time were systematically investigated. The as-prepared Au nanoparticles were characterized by UV–vis absorption spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission and field emission scanning electron microscopy (TEM and FESEM). This is the first example for in situ formed metal nanoparticles in chitosan hydrogel systems via photoreduction. The effectiveness of the as-prepared Au nanoparticles as nanocatalysts was evaluated by employing the reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) to 4-aminophenol (4-AP) by NaBH4 as a model reaction. The catalytic reduction reaction was found to be very efficient and to follow a pseudo-first-order kinetics. The as-prepared Au nanoparticles demonstrated good reusability and stability. The reduction of a series of other nitroaromatic compounds including highly explosives 2,4,6-trinitrophenol (2,4,6-tNP) and 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (2,4,6-tNT) was achieved by means of this catalytic system.