Preparation and Photocatalytic Property of Gold Nanoparticles by Using Two Bolaform Cholesteryl Imide Derivatives

Abstract

In this article, gold nanoparticles were synthesized by two bolaform cholesteryl imide derivatives with different lengths of ethyleneamine spacers at a liquid-liquid interface. By stirring the aqueous solution containing ions with the chloroform solution of bolaform amphiphile, ions were transferred into the organic phase and reduced to gold nanoparticles. Spectral and morphological measurements indicated that both bolaform amphiphiles could serve as both capping and reducing agents. Different gold nanostructures could be obtained depending on the different spacers and the molar ratios of amphiphile to ions. The photocatalytic properties of as-made gold nanoparticles on the degradation of methyl orange indicated that the spacers in the amphiphiles indeed played an important role in changing the sizes of as-made gold nanoparticles and subsequently regulating their catalytic behaviors. The present work gave an original investigation of synthesis and regulation of gold nanostructures by utilizing bolaform amphiphiles with different spacers.

Keywords:

• Bolaform amphiphile
• cholesteryl derivative
• gold nanoparticles
• nanostructures
• photocatalytic properties

Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21207112), the Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province (B2012203060, B2013203108), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2011M500540, 2012M510770, 2013T60265), the Science Foundation for the Excellent Youth Scholars from Universities and Colleges of Hebei Province (Y2011113, YQ2013026), the Scientific Research Foundation for Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars of Hebei Province (2011052), and the Open Foundation of State Key Laboratory of Solid Lubrication (1002).