Urzúa, E., Gonzalez-Torres, F., Beltrán, V., Barrias, P., Bonardd, S., Ramírez, A. M. R., & Ahumada, M. (2022). Ag@ Au bimetallic nanoparticles: an easy and highly reproducible synthetic approach for photocatalysis. Nanoscale Advances, 4(22), 4789-4797. https://doi.org/10.1039/D2NA00539E

Abstract: An Ag@Au bimetallic nanoparticle (BNP) formulation was developed in this work. The proposed formulation was developed using photochemical and chemical methods and non-toxic reagents, showing high reproducibility and homogeneity. The synthesized BNPs have an average size of 7 nm, a core–shell-like structure (silver core and gold shell), high colloidal and long-term stability, and superior catalytic activity under darkness and white light irradiation conditions when evaluating the reduction of 4-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenolate, with respect to the monometallic Ag and Au counterparts. Furthermore, BNP concentrations as low as 2 nM were required to reach 100% conversions in less than 30 minutes. Therefore, considering future applications, the high surface-to-volume ratio of the prepared BNPs coupled with their well-defined optical properties makes them a great candidate for developing heterogeneous catalyzer materials to be applicable under sunlight as an environmentally friendly catalytic system.