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In situ green growth of uniform and naked Ag nanoparticles on graphene oxide at room temperature and its enhanced catalytic performance

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Abstract

In situ growth of naked Ag nanoparticles on graphene oxide was achieved following a simple, green, and environment-friendly one-step stirring method. In the absence of extra reductant and stabilizer, the naked Ag nanoparticles formed on the surface of GO via a spontaneous redox reaction between Ag+ and GO at room temperature. The morphology and microstructure of the resultant heterogeneous nanostructures were characterized by various spectroscopic and microscopic techniques systematically. The characterization results showed that the naked metallic Ag nanoparticles with an average diameter of 4.31 ± 0.13 nm distribute homogeneously and tend to “stand” in line on GO. The well-known catalytic hydrogenation of 4-nitrophenol by NaBH4 was carried out to investigate the potential catalytic activity of the obtained heterogeneous Ag/GO nanocomposite. The obtained Ag/GO nanocomposite exhibited high catalytic ability with the apparent kinetics constant of 1.856 min−1 and high turnover frequency of 2131.6 h−1 and high structural and performance stability. It is believed that the small size and naked surface of the Ag nanoparticles, which provide abundant exposed catalytically active sites, facilitate greatly in improving the catalytic performance of Ag/GO. It is anticipated that the proposed green method is extendible to prepare other efficient noble-metal/GO nanocatalyst.

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Funding

This study was funded by the High-level Talent Research Support Program of Shenyang Ligong University (No. 1050002000614) and the Doctoral Start-up Foundation of Liaoning Province (No. 20180540031).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Shenyang Ligong University, Shenyang, 110159, China

    Xing-Wei Han & Huiying Pan

  2. Department of Chemical Engineering, University College London, London, WC1E 6BT, UK

    Minghao Liu

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  1. Xing-Wei Han
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  2. Huiying Pan
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  3. Minghao Liu
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Dr. Xing-Wei Han designed experiments and wrote the manuscript; Miss Huiying Pan carried out experiments and analyzed part of the data; Mr. Minghao Liu analyzed the data.

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Correspondence to Xing-Wei Han.

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Han, XW., Pan, H. & Liu, M. In situ green growth of uniform and naked Ag nanoparticles on graphene oxide at room temperature and its enhanced catalytic performance. J Nanopart Res 22, 166 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-020-04902-x

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