In situ reduction of chloroauric acid (HAuCl4) for generation of catalytic Au nanoparticle embedded triazine based covalent organic polymer networks

Covalent-organic polymer networks (COPNs) have been used as catalyst supports due to their stable and favorable structure. Herein, a simple synthetic route was applied to generate Au@COPN-1 hybrids via in situ reduction of gold ions with no additional reducing agent. Synthesized novel COPN-1 was mixed with different concentrations of HAuCl4 which resulted in Au@COPN-1 with varying sizes of Au nanoparticles in a controlled manner. The microstructural and morphological features of COPN-1 and Au@COPN-1 were characterized in detail using FT-IR, C-NMR, elemental analysis, UV-Vis, XRD, TEM, BET, and TGA. It is noteworthy that the red-shifted LSPR peaks of Au nanoparticles produced with increasing concentrations of HAuCl4 indicated an increase in the particle size of the Au nanoparticles as justified by TEM images. The optimum catalytic activity of Au@COPN-1 was obtained when 4.6 x 10(-3) mM HAuCl4 was used, which led to the complete reduction of 4-nitrophenol within 16 minutes with excellent recyclability for more than 5 catalytic cycles, giving yields over 94%. Moreover, the non-aggregation of nanoparticles in the reused catalyst further confirmed the stability of the prepared catalysts. Consequently, these results indicated that in situ synthesis of AuNPs inside the COPN-1 matrix produces a promising catalyst platform for the reduction of aromatic nitro compounds, for example, for the degradation of one of the most common persistent organic pollutants 4-nitrophenol, as shown here. In addition, the Au@COPN-1 hybrid system showed good biocompatibility at appropriate doses confirmed by a dynamic real-time cell analysis system which can be used in various medical applications, such as drug delivery, in the future.