Catalytic oxidation of glucose on gold nanoparticles in neutral pH

Abstract

We have demonstrated the importance of stabilizing on the catalytic activity towards glucose oxidation of gold nanoparticles which is dependent on the active metal surface. For this purpose we prepare gold nanoparticles stabilized with oleyl amine (AuNPs-OLA) and compare them with phosphomolybdate-capped gold nanoparticles (AuNPs-PMo 12 ). The electrochemical oxidation of glucose on glassy carbon electrode modified with these gold nanoparticles has been studied in phosphate buffer (pH=7.4) on glassy carbon electrodes. Under these conditions AuNPs-PMo 12 are more active in catalytic process than AuNPs-OLA. This is caused by poorly conductive nature of oleyl amine where the amine molecules stabilize the particles nearly covalently and they form densely packed shell on surface of gold nanoparticles blocking metal active sites. The gold nanoparticles will be also subjected to physical characterization, like Spectrophotometry UV-VIS and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) to verify their structure and morphology.