Basic concepts and recent advances in nitrophenol reduction by gold- and other transition metal nanoparticles

This review presents the basic concepts and recent developments and advances of gold nanoparticle (AuNP)-catalyzed 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) reduction to 4-aminophenol (4-AP) by sodium borohydride, including the catalytic mechanism, the variety of stabilizers, and dendritic, natural and heterogeneous AuNP supports. The nano-gold catalysts are classified according to different stabilizers, the review contains 205 citations. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.