Preparation of gold nanostars and their study in selective catalytic reactions

• Gold nanostars show catalytic and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) activity.
• They can catalyze the reduction of 4-nitrophenol and 4-nitroaniline efficiently.
• The different molecular orientations at surface were proved by SERS spectroscopy.

In this work, gold nanostars (AuNSs) with size around 90 nm were prepared through an easy one-step method. They show excellent catalytic activity and large surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) activity at the same time. Surprisingly, they exhibited different catalytic performance on the reduction of aromatic nitro compounds with different substituents on the para position. To understand such a difference, the SERS spectra were recorded, showing that the molecular orientation of reactants on the gold surface were different. We anticipate that this research will help to understand the relationship of the molecular orientation with the catalytic activity of gold nanoparticles.

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