Issue 23, 2017

Probing the surface reactivity of nanocrystals by the catalytic degradation of organic dyes: the effect of size, surface chemistry and composition

Abstract

We herein present a comprehensive study on how the catalytic performance and reusability of Au nanocrystals (NCs) are affected by systematic variations of crystal size, surface coating and composition. The reductions of different organic dyes (4-nitrophenol, rhodamine B and methylene blue) by borohydride ions were used as model catalytic reactions. The catalytic performance of the Au NCs ranged between 3.6 to 110 nm was found to be dependent on crystal size, indicating that Au surface atoms have a distinct size-dependent reactivity in this reaction. Similarly, the catalytic performance was found to be strongly dependent on the nature of the coating molecule, obtaining lower catalytic activities for molecules strongly bound to the Au surface. Finally, the catalytic performance was found to be dependent on the chemical composition of the NC (Au, Ag, Pt) and the model dye used as a testing system, with the highest degradation rate found for methylene blue, followed by 4-nitrophenol and rhodamine B. We believe that this study provides a better understanding of the catalytic performance of Au NCs upon controlled modifications of the structural and morphological parameters, and a working environment that can be used to facilitate the selection of the optimum NC size, coating molecule and evaluation system for a particular study of interest.

Graphical abstract: Probing the surface reactivity of nanocrystals by the catalytic degradation of organic dyes: the effect of size, surface chemistry and composition

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
12 Febr. 2017
Accepted
15 Maijs 2017
First published
15 Maijs 2017

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2017,5, 11917-11929

Probing the surface reactivity of nanocrystals by the catalytic degradation of organic dyes: the effect of size, surface chemistry and composition

J. Piella, F. Merkoçi, A. Genç, J. Arbiol, N. G. Bastús and V. Puntes, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2017, 5, 11917 DOI: 10.1039/C7TA01328K

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