Photochemical fabrication of size-controllable gold nanoparticles on chitosan and their application on catalytic decomposition of acetaldehyde

In this work, we report a new pathway to prepare size-controllable gold nanoparticles (NPs) on chitosan (Ch) in aqueous solutions for improving catalytic decomposition of acetaldehyde by pure gold NPs at room temperature. First, Au substrates were cycled in deoxygenated aqueous solutions containing 0.1N NaCl and 1 g/L Ch from −0.28 to +1.22 V vs Ag/AgCl at 500 mV/s for 200 scans. Then the solutions were irradiated with UV lights of different wavelengths to prepare size-controllable Au NPs on Ch. Experimental results indicate that the particle sizes of prepared NPs are increased when UV lights with longer wavelengths were employed. The particle sizes of resulted Au NPs can be controlled from 10 to 50 nm. Moreover, the decomposition of acetaldehydes in wines can be significantly enhanced by ca. 190% of magnitude due to the contribution of the adsorption of Au NPs on Ch.