Reveals strong effects of counter-cations on catalytic activity for 4-nitrophenol reduction, suggesting important implications for water treatment.
The catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol is a widely used model reaction for water treatment and to evaluate the catalytic activity of nanomaterials. Here, we report on the strong, yet overlooked, effect of cations in the borohydride-mediated reduction of 4-nitrophenol using gold as a catalyst. Catalytic activity consistently increases in the order Li⁺ < Na⁺ << K⁺, with KBH₄ leading to the highest turnovers compared to LiBH₄ or NaBH₄, both with pre-formed gold nanoparticles but also using HAuCl₄, AgNO₃, or Pd(NO₃)₂.
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Smolska et al. (2026) studied this question.
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