Gold Nanoparticles Supported on Alumina as a Catalyst for Surface Plasmon-Enhanced Selective Reductions of Nitrobenzene

Kittichai Chaiseeda; Shun Nishimura; Kohki Ebitani

doi:10.1021/acsomega.7b01248

Gold Nanoparticles Supported on Alumina as a Catalyst for Surface Plasmon-Enhanced Selective Reductions of Nitrobenzene

ACS Omega. 2017 Oct 23;2(10):7066-7070. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.7b01248. eCollection 2017 Oct 31.

Authors

Kittichai Chaiseeda^{1

2}, Shun Nishimura¹, Kohki Ebitani¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Materials Science, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST), 1-1 Asahidai, Nomi, Ishikawa 923-1292, Japan.
² Natural Products Research Unit, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand.

Abstract

Au nanoparticles supported on alumina (Au/Al₂O₃) with average particle size of 3.9 ± 0.7 nm and surface plasmon band centerned at 516.5 nm were prepared by deposition-precipitation method, and their photocatalytic activities for the reduction of nitrobenzene using either formic acid in acetonitrile (method A) or KOH in 2-propanol (method B) were investigated. Even at room temperature, the Au/Al₂O₃ was found to be highly active and selective for conversion of nitrobenzene to aniline when used with formic acid in acetonitrile or to azobenzene when performed with KOH in 2-propanol under irradiation with green light-emitting diode (517 nm).