Preparation of polyelectrolyte‐stabilized silver nanoparticles for catalytic applications

A facile and green method is developed for the preparation of polyelectrolyte‐stabilized silver nanoparticles ( AgNPs ) using dopamine as a reducing agent. The AgNPs were prepared in the presence of the polyelectrolyte poly[acrylamide‐ co ‐(diallyldimethylammonium chloride)] ( PADA ) and amine‐functionalized silane matrices. Interestingly, only amine‐functionalized silanes led to AgNPs in the presence of PADA , whereas silane without amine functionalization failed to produce them. The catalytic ability of the AgNPs was investigated by adopting a benchmark reaction, i.e. reduction of 4‐nitrophenol in the presence of sodium borohydride. It was found that PADA ‐Ag(0.1)‐ TPDT ( TPDT = N ‐[3‐(trimethoxysilyl)propyl]diethylenetriamine) showed better catalytic activity when compared to other silver concentrations of 0.05, 0.5 and 1 mmol L −1 . Remarkably, a very high normalized rate constant, 20 374 s −1  g −1 , was observed for PADA ‐Ag(0.1)‐ TPDT . © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry