A novel Au/electroactive poly(amic acid) composite as an effective catalyst for p-nitrophenol reduction

Guan-Hui Lai; Tsao-Cheng Huang; Bi-Sheng Huang; Yi-Chen Chou

doi:10.1039/d1ra05347g

A novel Au/electroactive poly(amic acid) composite as an effective catalyst for p-nitrophenol reduction

RSC Adv. 2021 Oct 20;11(54):33990-33995. doi: 10.1039/d1ra05347g. eCollection 2021 Oct 18.

Authors

Guan-Hui Lai¹, Tsao-Cheng Huang², Bi-Sheng Huang¹, Yi-Chen Chou¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Cosmetic Science, Providence University 43301 Taichung Taiwan jacs1yichen@pu.edu.tw.
² Technical Department Plastics Division, Formosa Plastics Corporation 814538 Kaohsiung Taiwan.

Abstract

A Au/electroactive poly(amic acid) (Au/EPAA) composite was synthesized and characterized, and its catalytic ability was evaluated. EPAA was synthesized via oxidative coupling polymerization and Au nanoparticles were anchored to the amino and carboxyl groups. The Au/EPAA composite was characterized via X-ray diffraction analysis, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy, which confirmed that the Au nanoparticles were well dispersed on the EPAA surface. p-Nitrophenol was reduced to p-aminophenol within 5 min at room temperature, with a rate constant of 0.84 min^-1. Cycling measurements showed that the Au/EPAA composite achieved higher than 92% conversion. The Au/EPAA composite showed excellent performance and stability as a catalyst for the reduction of p-nitrophenol to p-aminophenol.