Synthesis of honeycomb-like palladium nanostructures by using cucurbit[7]uril and their catalytic activities for reduction of 4-nitrophenol

•A simple and one-pot method to synthesis palladium nanostructures with honey-comb like structure.•The strategy established here does not require any harsh and toxic reducing agents.•It has a potential to be a general method for the synthesis of metal nanoparticles in water medium.•Palladium nanoclusters can be used as catalyst for the reduction reaction of 4-nitrophenol.•This system makes a novel platform for industrial and biomedical applications.

An eco-friendly one-pot method to synthesize self-assembled palladium nanoclusters using a macrocycle, namely cucurbit[7]uril, in the alkaline medium without employing any special reducing or capping agents and/or external energy at room temperature is described. This greener approach, which utilizes water as a benign solvent and biocompatible cucurbit[7]uril as both reducing and protecting agents, can be applied to synthesize other noble metal nanoparticles such as gold, silver, and platinum. Owing to unique structural arrangement of cucurbit[7]uril, it was possible to prepare palladium nanoclusters of honeycomb-like structure irrespective of the reaction conditions. The honeycomb-like palladium nanoclusters were characterized using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), higher-resolution TEM (HR-TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), UV–vis, and FT-IR spectroscopy. Significantly, the synthesized palladium nanoclusters exhibited catalytic activity for the reduction reaction of 4-nitrophenol at room temperature. The approach launched here is easy, green, and user-friendly in contrast to the conventional techniques using polymers or surfactants and harsh reductants.

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