Preparation of [C60]Fullerene Nanowhisker-gold Nanoparticle Composites and Reduction of 4-Nitrophenol through Catalysis

Jeong Won Ko,Weon Bae Ko,Jiulong Li

doi:10.5772/62086

Abstract

A gold nanoparticle solution was prepared by adding sodium borohydride (NaBH4), trisodium citrate dihydrate (C6H5Na3O7·2H2O), cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB,(C16H33)N(CH3)3Br), ascorbic acid (C6H8O6), and potassium tetrachloroaurate(III)(KAuCl4) to distilled water and stirring the solution for 15 min. [C60]fullerene nanowhisker-gold nanoparticle composites were synthesized using C60-saturated toluene, the gold nanoparticle solution, and isopropyl alcohol by liquid-liquid interfacial precipitation (LLIP). The product of the nanocomposites was characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and solid-state 13C-nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The catalytic activity of the [C60]fullerene nanowhisker-gold nanoparticle composites was confirmed in 4-nitrophenol reduction by UV-vis spectroscopy.

Highlights

The best known fullerene is C60, which consists of carbon bonded into 12 pentagonal and 20 hexagonal rings [1]
The liquid-liquid interfacial precipitation (LLIP) method relies on diffusion of a poor fullerene solvent, such as isopropyl alcohol, into a saturated toluene solution of fullerenes [4]. [C60]fullerene nanowhiskers are synthesized using the LLIP method [4], which has been widely applied [5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12]
The present authors have investigated the characterization of gold nanoparticles incorporating [C60]fullerene nanowhiskers and their catalytic activity for 4-nitrophenol reduction in the presence of sodium borohydride (NaBH4), as deter‐ mined by UV-vis spectrophotometry

Summary

Introduction

The best known fullerene is C60, which consists of carbon bonded into 12 pentagonal and 20 hexagonal rings [1]. The [C60]fullerene nanowhiskers show good electri‐ cal conductivity [13] and have a large surface area [14, 15]. The growth of [C60]fullerene nanowhiskers is affected by temperature, light, ratio of poor solvent to good solvent during LLIP, and concentration of water [16,17,18,19,20]. The dispersion of gold nanoparticles on nanopo‐ rous fullerene nanowhiskers is attractive for catalytic applications [27,28]. The present authors have investigated the characterization of gold nanoparticles incorporating [C60]fullerene nanowhiskers and their catalytic activity for 4-nitrophenol reduction in the presence of sodium borohydride (NaBH4), as deter‐ mined by UV-vis spectrophotometry

Reagents and instruments

Synthesis of gold nanoparticles

Results and Discussion

Conclusions