title: Controllable synthesis and catalysis application of hierarchical PS/Au core-shell nanocomposites.
abstract: Polystyrene (PS)/gold (Au) core-shell nanocomposites with tunable size, high stability, and excellent catalytic activity have been synthesized by a facile method that combines the ionic self-assembly with the in situ reduction. The composition and stoichiometry, as well as its morphology and optical properties of these nanocomposites have been examined and verified by various characterization techniques. The size and the coverage of gold nanoparticles (NPs) can be simply tailored by changing the amount of 3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane (APTES), the functionalization time, the protonation time, and the amount of chloroauric acid (HAuCl(4)). The continuous red shifts of the localized surface plasmon resonance absorption of the Au NPs on the PS spheres are observed. Importantly, the obtained Au NPs with controllable and uniform size on the surfaces of amino-functionalized PS spheres exhibit excellent size-dependent catalytic properties for the reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) by NaBH(4).
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Artificial Micro- and Nano-Structures of Ministry of Education, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, PR China.
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Shaofeng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Xiangheng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.forename: Jinxia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Changzhong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jiang
mesh_terms: D002384:Catalysis; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry*; D053761:Nanocomposites / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D009596:Nitrophenols / Q000737:chemistry; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D011137:Polystyrenes / Q000737:chemistry*; D011437:Propylamines / Q000737:chemistry; D012821:Silanes / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D009596:Nitrophenols; D011137:Polystyrenes; D011437:Propylamines; D012821:Silanes; C088294:3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane; D006046:Gold; C024836:4-nitrophenol