Ferrocene-containing amphiphilic dendronized random copolymer as efficient stabilizer for reusable gold nanoparticles in catalysis

Abstract

Due to their high catalytic activity, gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have been exploited as green and efficient catalysts in various chemical reactions, such as the oxidation of CO to CO2, aerobic oxidation of alcohols, CC coupling reactions and reduction reactions through transfer hydrogenation. Here, we report an efficient dendritic stabilizer for AuNPs. The dendritic stabilizer is a ferrocene-containing amphiphilic dendronized random copolymer that is synthesized by the ring-opening metathesis polymerization. And, the obtained amphiphilic copolymer can self-assemble into spherical micelles in aqueous solution, resulting in the formation of efficient nanoreactors for AuNPs in the 4-nitrophenol reduction to 4-aminophenol by NaBH4. It is found that AuNPs obtained by using NaBH4 as reductant have obviously smaller size and higher catalytic activity than those fabricated by using the ferrocene-based groups as reductant. The reusable experiment indicates that the small-sized AuNPs can be reused at least for fifteen times.