Abstract
The templated synthesis of noble metal nanoparticles using biomass, such as proteins and polysaccharides, has generated great interest in recent years. In this work, we report on denatured proteins as a novel template for the preparation of water-soluble metal nanoparticles with excellent stability even after high speed centrifugation or storage at room temperature for one year. Different noble metal nanoparticles including spherical gold and platinum nanoparticles as well as gold nanoflowers are obtained using sodium borohydride or ascorbic acid as the reducing agent. The particle size can be controlled by the concentration of the template. These metal nanoparticles are further used as catalysts for the hydrogenation reaction of p-nitrophenol to p-aminophenol. Especially, spherical gold nanoparticles with an average size of 2 nm show remarkable catalytic performance with a rate constant of 1.026 × 10− 2 L s− 1 mg− 1. These metal nanoparticles with tunable size and shape have great potential for various applications such as catalysis, energy, sensing, and biomedicine.Graphical abstract
Highlights
Due to their high surface-to-volume ratios and quantum size effects, noble metal nanoparticles exhibit distinct optical, thermal, and chemical properties from their bulk counterparts [1, 2]
We report on unfolded protein backbones that possess a large number of amino groups able to bind metal ions and using them to act as novel templates for the preparation of noble metal nanoparticles with controlled sizes and shapes
polyethylene glycol (PEG)-cationic human serum albumin (HSA) (cHSA) was unfolded in urea-phosphate buffer in the presence of Tris(2carboxyethyl) phosphine hydrochloride (TCEP) as a reducing agent
Summary
Due to their high surface-to-volume ratios and quantum size effects, noble metal nanoparticles exhibit distinct optical, thermal, and chemical properties from their bulk counterparts [1, 2]. Chen et al Journal of Leather Science and Engineering (2020) 2:7 native proteins including human serum albumin (HSA) and lysozyme to well-defined linear biopolymers [28, 29] Such protein-derived polymers offer many fascinating characteristics such as biocompatibility, biodegradability, predetermined length, narrow size distribution, and a defined number of functional groups at distinct positions along the polypeptide backbone [30]. The well-defined nanoparticles demonstrate excellent catalytic performances for the hydrogenation reaction of p-nitrophenol to p-aminophenol These metal nanoparticles prepared using the novel protein-derived template may find great potential in surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, photothermal therapy, catalysis, biomedicine, textiles, and functional coatings for leather products
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