Catalytic performance in 4-nitrophenol reduction by Ag nanoparticles stabilized on biodegradable amphiphilic copolymers

Abstract

Biodegradable copolymers have received much more attention in the last decades due their potential applications in the fields related to environmental protection, medicine, agriculture, and the chemical processes. Silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) were prepared via reduction of silver nitrate (AgNO3) using biodegradable amphiphilic copolymers in aqueous solution. The micelles were constructed from the amphiphilic copolymer composed of poly(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline) and poly(ε-caprolactone). The Ag NPs with a diameter of 10–15 nm were found to show a comparable high catalytic activity toward the reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) in the presence of an excess amount of NaBH4. The synthesized Ag NPs-loaded copolymer exhibits high catalytic activity for the reduction of 4-NP to 4-aminophenol.