title: Size dependent catalysis with CTAB-stabilized gold nanoparticles.
abstract: CTAB-stabilized gold nanoparticles were synthesized by applying the seeding-growth approach in order to gain information about the size dependence of the catalytic reduction of p-nitrophenol to p-aminophenol with sodium borohydride. Five different colloidal solutions of stabilized gold nanoparticles have been characterized by TEM, AFM, UV-Vis, SAXS, and DLS for their particle size distributions. Gold nanoparticles (mean sizes: 3.5, 10, 13, 28, 56 nm diameter) were tested for their catalytic efficiency. Kinetic data were acquired by UV-Vis spectroscopy at different temperatures between 25 and 45 °C. By studying the p-nitrophenol to p-aminophenol reaction kinetics we determined the nanoparticle size which is needed to gain the fastest conversion under ambient conditions in the liquid phase. Unexpectedly, CTAB-stabilized gold nanoparticles with a diameter of 13 nm are most efficient.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Chemie, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Brook-Taylorstraße 2, 12489 Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fenger
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Fertitta
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kirmse
authors.forename: A F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Thünemann
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Rademann