Ligand-free gold nanoclusters confined in mesoporous silica nanoparticles for styrene epoxidation

Buthainah Alshankiti; Walid Almaksoud; Madathumpady Abubaker Habeeb Muhammed; Dalaver H. Anjum; Basem Moosa; Jean-Marie Basset; Niveen M. Khashab

doi:10.1039/c9na00781d

Ligand-free gold nanoclusters confined in mesoporous silica nanoparticles for styrene epoxidation

Buthainah Alshankiti, Walid Almaksoud, Madathumpady Abubaker Habeeb Muhammed, Dalaver H. Anjum, Basem Moosa, Jean-Marie Basset, Niveen M. Khashab

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Abstract

We present a novel approach to produce gold nanoclusters (Au NCs) in the pores of mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) by sequential and controlled addition of metal ions and reducing agents. This impregnation technique was followed to confine Au NCs inside the pores of MSNs without adding external ligands or stabilizing agents. TEM images show a uniform distribution of monodisperse NCs with an average size of 1.37 ± 0.4 nm. Since the NCs are grown in situ in MSN pores, additional support and high temperature calcination are not required to use them as catalysts. The use of Au NC/MSNs as a catalyst for the epoxidation of styrene in the presence of tert-butyl hydroperoxide (TBHP) as a terminal oxidant resulted in an 88% conversion of styrene in 12 h with a 74% selectivity towards styrene epoxide. Our observations suggest that this remarkable catalytic performance is due to the small size of Au NCs and the strong interaction between gold and the MSNs. This catalytic conversion is environmentally friendly as it is solvent free. We believe our synthetic approach can be extended to other metal NCs offering a wide range of applications.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	1437-1442
Number of pages	6
Journal	Nanoscale Advances
Volume	2
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1039/c9na00781d
State	Published - Mar 18 2020

Bibliographical note

KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01
Acknowledgements: This work was supported by the King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST). We thank Dr Mohamed Nejib Hedhili for XPS analysis and Dr Edy AbouHmad for solid state NMR spectroscopy.

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title = "Ligand-free gold nanoclusters confined in mesoporous silica nanoparticles for styrene epoxidation",

abstract = "We present a novel approach to produce gold nanoclusters (Au NCs) in the pores of mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) by sequential and controlled addition of metal ions and reducing agents. This impregnation technique was followed to confine Au NCs inside the pores of MSNs without adding external ligands or stabilizing agents. TEM images show a uniform distribution of monodisperse NCs with an average size of 1.37 ± 0.4 nm. Since the NCs are grown in situ in MSN pores, additional support and high temperature calcination are not required to use them as catalysts. The use of Au NC/MSNs as a catalyst for the epoxidation of styrene in the presence of tert-butyl hydroperoxide (TBHP) as a terminal oxidant resulted in an 88% conversion of styrene in 12 h with a 74% selectivity towards styrene epoxide. Our observations suggest that this remarkable catalytic performance is due to the small size of Au NCs and the strong interaction between gold and the MSNs. This catalytic conversion is environmentally friendly as it is solvent free. We believe our synthetic approach can be extended to other metal NCs offering a wide range of applications.",

author = "Buthainah Alshankiti and Walid Almaksoud and {Habeeb Muhammed}, {Madathumpady Abubaker} and Anjum, {Dalaver H.} and Basem Moosa and Jean-Marie Basset and Khashab, {Niveen M.}",

note = "KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01 Acknowledgements: This work was supported by the King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST). We thank Dr Mohamed Nejib Hedhili for XPS analysis and Dr Edy AbouHmad for solid state NMR spectroscopy.",

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AU - Alshankiti, Buthainah

AU - Almaksoud, Walid

AU - Habeeb Muhammed, Madathumpady Abubaker

AU - Anjum, Dalaver H.

AU - Moosa, Basem

AU - Basset, Jean-Marie

AU - Khashab, Niveen M.

N1 - KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01 Acknowledgements: This work was supported by the King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST). We thank Dr Mohamed Nejib Hedhili for XPS analysis and Dr Edy AbouHmad for solid state NMR spectroscopy.

PY - 2020/3/18

Y1 - 2020/3/18

N2 - We present a novel approach to produce gold nanoclusters (Au NCs) in the pores of mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) by sequential and controlled addition of metal ions and reducing agents. This impregnation technique was followed to confine Au NCs inside the pores of MSNs without adding external ligands or stabilizing agents. TEM images show a uniform distribution of monodisperse NCs with an average size of 1.37 ± 0.4 nm. Since the NCs are grown in situ in MSN pores, additional support and high temperature calcination are not required to use them as catalysts. The use of Au NC/MSNs as a catalyst for the epoxidation of styrene in the presence of tert-butyl hydroperoxide (TBHP) as a terminal oxidant resulted in an 88% conversion of styrene in 12 h with a 74% selectivity towards styrene epoxide. Our observations suggest that this remarkable catalytic performance is due to the small size of Au NCs and the strong interaction between gold and the MSNs. This catalytic conversion is environmentally friendly as it is solvent free. We believe our synthetic approach can be extended to other metal NCs offering a wide range of applications.

AB - We present a novel approach to produce gold nanoclusters (Au NCs) in the pores of mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) by sequential and controlled addition of metal ions and reducing agents. This impregnation technique was followed to confine Au NCs inside the pores of MSNs without adding external ligands or stabilizing agents. TEM images show a uniform distribution of monodisperse NCs with an average size of 1.37 ± 0.4 nm. Since the NCs are grown in situ in MSN pores, additional support and high temperature calcination are not required to use them as catalysts. The use of Au NC/MSNs as a catalyst for the epoxidation of styrene in the presence of tert-butyl hydroperoxide (TBHP) as a terminal oxidant resulted in an 88% conversion of styrene in 12 h with a 74% selectivity towards styrene epoxide. Our observations suggest that this remarkable catalytic performance is due to the small size of Au NCs and the strong interaction between gold and the MSNs. This catalytic conversion is environmentally friendly as it is solvent free. We believe our synthetic approach can be extended to other metal NCs offering a wide range of applications.

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Ligand-free gold nanoclusters confined in mesoporous silica nanoparticles for styrene epoxidation

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