This work reports a rapid, facile, surfactant free and size controlled microwave assisted synthesis of colloidal gold nanostructures in aqueous medium. The growth of gold nanostructures was taking place using auric chloride with different ketones. The various ketones such as cyclohexanone, 2,4-pentanedione, 2,5-hexanedione, 1,4-cyclohexanedione, 1,3-cyclopentanedione, cyclopentanone, 2,3-butanedione and 2-butanone were used for the synthesis of gold nanostructures. Ketone plays a crucial role in synthesis and it act as a reducing, stabilizing as well as structure directing agent. The nanoparticle size and their rates of formation were found to be dependent on the enol content (keto-enol equilibrium constant) and water solubility of the ketones. The size of the gold nanoparticles was tunable in the range of 20–80nm and 200–500nm for the nanoplates with the specific selection of ketone. The phase structure, elemental composition, morphology and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) properties of the synthesized gold nanostructures were studied using XRD, EDS, FEG-SEM and UV–Visible spectroscopy respectively. Furthermore, the catalytic activity and recyclability of gold nanoparticles for the reduction of p-nitrophenol to p-aminophenol in the presence of sodium borohydride was evaluated using UV–Visible spectroscopy at room temperature. Interestingly, the catalytic activity was found to be depended on the particle size of gold nanoparticles.