Facile one-pot synthesis of gold nanoparticles using tannic acid and its application in catalysis

The paper reports a simple and efficient method for the synthesis of stable, nearly spherical gold nanoparticles using tannic acid as both the reducing and stabilizing agent. The nanoparticles are characterized by UV–visible spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), EDX and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. The influence of tannic acid on the control of size and shape of gold nanoparticles is reported. Upon an increase in the concentration of tannic acid, there is a shift in the shape of nanoparticles as evidenced by the change in bandwidth and peak position of the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) band. Also, it is found that tannic acid ceases to act as a reducing agent beyond the limit of 10 mL (6×10−3 M) for 30 mL of HAuCl4 (1.3×10−3 M). On increasing the quantity of tannic acid, nucleation is favored in the initial stages and thereafter growth supersedes nucleation. The stable colloids obtained by this method are found to consist of nanoparticles with average size 8 and 12 nm. The crystallinity of the sample with fcc phase is observed from TEM, SAED and XRD pattern. Involvement of carboxylic acid group in capping of gold nanoparticles is evident from the FTIR spectrum. The application of the synthesized nanoparticles as catalyst in the reduction of 4-Nitrophenol to 4-Aminophenol is also reported.