Denatured proteins as a novel template for the synthesis of well-defined, ultra-stable and water-soluble metal nanostructures for catalytic applications

Abstract

Abstract The templated synthesis of noble metal nanoparticles using biomass, such as proteins and polysaccharides, has generated great interest in recent years. In this work, we report on denatured proteins as a novel template for the preparation of water-soluble metal nanoparticles with excellent stability even after high speed centrifugation or storage at room temperature for one year. Different noble metal nanoparticles including spherical gold and platinum nanoparticles as well as gold nanoflowers are obtained using sodium borohydride or ascorbic acid as the reducing agent. The particle size can be controlled by the concentration of the template. These metal nanoparticles are further used as catalysts for the hydrogenation reaction of p-nitrophenol to p-aminophenol. Especially, spherical gold nanoparticles with an average size of 2 nm show remarkable catalytic performance with a rate constant of 1.026 × 10− 2 L s− 1 mg− 1. These metal nanoparticles with tunable size and shape have great potential for various applications such as catalysis, energy, sensing, and biomedicine. Graphical abstract

Keywords

• Unfolded proteins
• Gold nanoparticles
• Gold nanoflowers
• Platinum nanoparticles
• Biotemplated synthesis
• Catalysis