Cotton fiber-biotemplated synthesis of Ag fibers: Catalytic reduction for 4-nitrophenol and SERS application

Abstract

In this work, a facile and environment-friendly process is developed for synthesis of Ag fibers (AFs) by using natural cotton as the template. The as-prepared AFs are characterized using Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), energy disperse X-ray (EDX), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and UV-Visible spectroscopy. The results show that AFs are built by Ag particles initially formed on the surface of cotton. The AFs maintain the cotton-like fibrous structure after the removing of cotton. The as-prepared AFs can effectively catalyze the reduction of 4-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol in the presence of NaBH4. Moreover, the AFs can be served as highly sensitive surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) platforms for the detection of dye molecules, showing significantly high SERS activity toward methylene blue (MB). The superior SERS and catalytic activities of this material are useful in future for potential applications in catalysis and environmental determination based on SERS.