A facile construction of Au nanoparticles on a copolymer ligand brushes modified graphene oxide nanoplatform with excellent catalytic properties

Abstract

In this paper, we described an effective method for the in situ synthesis of Au nanoparticles (Au NPs) on 8-hydroxyquinoline ligands-containing copolymer brushes modified graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets. The copolymer brushes of P(OEGMA-co-MQ) were grafted from the surface of GO by reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization based on the monomers of oligo(ethylene glycol) monomethyl ether methacrylate (OEGMA) and 5-(2-methacryloyl-ethyloxymethyl)-8-quinolinol (MQ). Au NPs were generated via in situ reduction of Au³⁺ by an alkali and the 8-hydroxyquinoline units in the copolymer brushes were used as capping agents to stabilize Au NPs. The obtained Au NPs–GO hybrids exhibited a weak blue fluorescence emission at 475 nm and high catalytic activity in water for the reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP).