Novel Approach to Controllable Synthesis of Gold Nanoparticles Supported on Polyaniline Nanofibers

A facile and effective route has been proposed to synthesize gold nanoparticles with controllable size that uniformly deposited on surfaces of polyaniline (PANI) nanofibers, where PANI nanofibers themselves act as both supporter and reductant Effects of reagent concentration, reaction time, and temperature on size and uniformity of gold nanoparticles are investigated Furthermore, a functional doping acid of typical thioglycolic acid (TA) that introduced in PANI nanofibers shows good potential for improvement in uniformity of composites and control over gold nanoparticle size Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and ultraviolet visible (UV-vis) spectra are used to characterize PANI nanofiber/gold nanoparticle composites Adaptability of this approach for making PANI nanofiber composites with other noble metal nanoparticles, such as platinum, silver, and palladium nanoparticles, is also studied A possible formation mechanism Involved has been then proposed Furthermore, PANI nanofiber/gold nanoparticle composites are found to serve as effective recycled catalysts to activate the reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4NP) in the presence of NaBH4 where size of gold nanoparticles is found to play the determining role on catalytic activity