Remarkably catalytic activity in reduction of 4-nitrophenol and methylene blue by Fe3O4@COF supported noble metal nanoparticles

Noble metal nanoparticles (NPs) and covalent organic frameworks (COFs) represent two types of the most studied nanomaterials due to their excellent properties and broad applications. Herein, Fe3O4@COF (TAPB-DMTP) core-shell structure was constructed and used as a support for the immobilization of ultrafine Au NPs for the first time. Au NPs (4.0 nm) were in situ synthesized via the post-reduction method with NaBH4 and immobilized homogeneously in shells of Fe3O4@COF. The resultant core-shell structured Fe3O4@COF-Au exhibits remarkably catalytic activities, good thermal and chemical stabilities, and convenient magnetic separability in reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) and methylene blue (MB) with NaBH4. More importantly, this synthesis strategy is also applicable to other noble metal NPs (for example, Pt and Pd) to construct such multifunctional hybrid nanomaterials for catalysis application.