Decorating Au nanoparticles onto optimized P(tBA‐co‐DMAEMA) carriers for ameliorative catalytic capability

Abstract

ABSTRACTGold nanoparticles are increasingly being explored as novel catalytic nanomaterials due to their great reductive capacity. However, the van der Waals forces between them would bring poor stabilities as well as attenuated catalytic properties in solution. Therefore, it is significant to find carriers that could prevent catalytic gold nanoparticles from agglomerating. Herein, hydrophilic dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate (DMAEMA) and hydrophobic tert‐butyl acrylate (tBA) were used as co‐monomers to synthesize copolymer P(tBA‐co‐DMAEMA) microspheres by one‐step emulsifier‐free emulsion polymerization. Afterward, the self‐assembly behaviors of the amphiphilic polymers P(tBA‐co‐DMAEMA) under different conditions like molar ratio of DMAEMA/tBA and ethanol/water were explored to reveal an optimal condition for obtaining copolymer with appropriate size and morphology. These microspheres were used as carriers for gold nanoparticles, since HAuCl4 could be simply reduced and stabilized on their surface. Furthermore, various conditions such as HAuCl4 content, adding method of HAuCl4, protonation time and reducing conditions were filtered for the decoration of gold nanoparticles on the shell of that assembled copolymer. This composite was applied as an excellent catalyst for hydrogenation of hazardous chemicals (4‐nitrophenol and nitrobenzene). And it shows improved catalytic performance for both 4‐nitrophenol in the aqueous system and nitrobenzene in the oil system. © 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2020, 137, 48920.