TY - JOUR

T1 - Room temperature syntheses of surfactant-free colloidal gold nanoparticles

T2 - The benefits of mono-alcohols over polyols as reducing agents for electrocatalysis

AU - Quinson, Jonathan

AU - Nielsen, Tobias M.

AU - Escudero-Escribano, María

AU - Jensen, Kirsten M.Ø.

N1 - Funding Information: J.Q. has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant agreement No 840523 (CoSolCat). Dr S. B. Simonsen and Dr L. Theil Kuhn, Technical University of Denmark, are thanked for facilitating access to TEM equipment. Funding Information: J.Q. has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant agreement No 840523 (CoSolCat). Dr S. B. Simonsen and Dr L. Theil Kuhn, Technical University of Denmark, are thanked for facilitating access to TEM equipment. Publisher Copyright: © 2023

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - Developing sustainable strategies for energy conversion and chemical production remains a general challenge that can be addressed by the development of sustainable syntheses of nanocatalysts. Here, we explore colloidal syntheses of gold nanoparticles obtained at room temperature by a simple route that requires only an alcohol as reducing agent, water, a base and a gold precursor, without the need for extra reducing agents or stabilizers. To date, polyols-based syntheses were preferred but they suffer from multiple drawbacks related to the high viscosity and high boiling point of the solvents. We recently reported on the opportunities to use methanol and ethanol as alternative reducing agents. We illustrate further the benefits of using methanol and ethanol as reducing agents to prepare ca. 10–20 nm gold nanoparticles. We characterize the nanoparticles by UV–vis absorption, transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The nanoparticles prepared in alkaline mono-alcohols lead to nanocatalysts up to three times more active for the ethanol and ethylene glycol electro-oxidation than nanoparticles prepared using polyols.

AB - Developing sustainable strategies for energy conversion and chemical production remains a general challenge that can be addressed by the development of sustainable syntheses of nanocatalysts. Here, we explore colloidal syntheses of gold nanoparticles obtained at room temperature by a simple route that requires only an alcohol as reducing agent, water, a base and a gold precursor, without the need for extra reducing agents or stabilizers. To date, polyols-based syntheses were preferred but they suffer from multiple drawbacks related to the high viscosity and high boiling point of the solvents. We recently reported on the opportunities to use methanol and ethanol as alternative reducing agents. We illustrate further the benefits of using methanol and ethanol as reducing agents to prepare ca. 10–20 nm gold nanoparticles. We characterize the nanoparticles by UV–vis absorption, transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The nanoparticles prepared in alkaline mono-alcohols lead to nanocatalysts up to three times more active for the ethanol and ethylene glycol electro-oxidation than nanoparticles prepared using polyols.

KW - Direct alcohol fuel cells

KW - Electrocatalysis

KW - Gold

KW - Nanoparticles

KW - Room temperature synthesis

KW - Surfactant-free

U2 - 10.1016/j.colsurfa.2023.131853

DO - 10.1016/j.colsurfa.2023.131853

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85164224157

VL - 675

JO - Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects

JF - Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects

SN - 0927-7757

M1 - 131853

ER -