Polydopamine-mediated in situ synthesis of gold nanoparticles uniformly distributed on silk fibers as reusable catalysts for efficient 4-nitrophenol reduction

• Published in: Journal of industrial textiles 2024-01, Vol.54
• Main Authors: Zhang, Zhendong, Xiao, Jing, Wang, Chunyou, Song, Fangmiao, Sun, Wei, Wang, Chenhui, Lu, Zhisong, Zhang, Yan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1528-0837; 1530-8057
• DOI: 10.1177/15280837241227626

Developing green fibrous materials with uniformly distributed metal nanoparticles for highly efficient and recyclable catalysis remains a major challenge. Herein, we developed a simple, effective, and green method to immobilize gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) on polydopamine (PDA)-functionalized silk fibers (SFs) for efficient catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP). The density and size of AuNPs on the PDA-coated SFs can be tuned by adjusting precursor concentration and synthesis duration, respectively. The AuNPs-PDA-SFs catalysts prepared under optimized conditions could catalyze the reduction of 4-NP, 4-nitroaniline (4-NA), and 4-amino-3-nitrophenol (4-A-3-NP) at the apparent rate constants of 0.087, 0.091, and 0.063 min −1 , respectively. After six rounds of flow-through reduction of 4-NP, the AuNPs-PDA-SFs could maintain a 4-NP conversion rate greater than 92%, indicating their superior reusability and consistent catalytic activity. Due to the protein properties of SFs, the AuNPs-PDA-SFs can be degraded by enzymes and alkali solutions. This work may provide new insights for designing advanced fiber-supported recyclable catalysts with high catalytic performance and reusability in wastewater treatment.