A recyclable catalyst made of two-dimensional gold-loaded cellulose paper for reduction of 4-nitrophenol

Abstract

Two-dimensional gold nanostructures with controlled edge length and thickness were synthesized into polygonal shapes categorized as smooth/jagged-edged and single/multiple-layered nanosheets. Despite their micrometer-scaled lateral dimension, the high catalytic activity of the 2D Au nanostructures was observed in the reduction reaction of 4-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol in the presence of NaBH4. We studied the dependability of the catalytic performance on the edge area by examining the relationship between rate constants and catalytically active area of single-layered, jagged-edged, and multiply stacked 2D Au nanostructures. Furthermore, we successfully fabricated a robust and reusable catalyst by incorporating 2D Au nanostructures in a cellulose paper as a flexible substrate through the monolayer assembly and transfer method. The comparative study shows that multiply stacked Au nanosheets on a paper substrate outperformed the other Au nanostructures including nanoparticle.