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Updated: Jan 31, 2026

Synthesis and Catalytic Performance of Gold Intercalated in the Walls of Mesoporous Silica
Published on: July 9, 2015
Controllable Synthesis and Catalytic Performance of Gold Nanoparticles with Cucurbit[n]urils (n = 5⁻8)
Liangfeng Zhang1, Simin Liu2, Yuhua Wang3
1The State Key Laboratory of Refractories and Metallurgy, Coal Conversion and New Carbon Materials Hubei Key Laboratory, Hubei Province Key Laboratory of Science in Metallurgical Process, School of Chemistry & Chemical Engineering, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430081, China. wustzlf@163.com.
Abstract:
A series of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) was prepared in situ with different cucurbit[n]urils (CB[n]s) in an alkaline aqueous solution. The nanoparticle sizes can be well controlled by CB[n]s (n = 5, 6, 7, 8) with different ring sizes. The packing densities of CB[5⁻8] and free surface area on AuNPs were determined. A direct relationship was found between the ring size and packing density of CB[n]s with respect to the AuNP-catalyzed reduction of 4-nitrophenol in the presence of NaBH₄. The larger particle size and higher surface coverage of bigger CB[n]-capped AuNPs significantly decreased the catalytic activity. Furthermore, this work could lead to new applications that utilize AuNPs under an overlayer of CB[n]s for catalysis, sensing, and drug delivery.
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