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We report a reinterpretation of the reduction of 4-nitrophenol catalyzed by silver nanoparticles. Mass spectrometry and ultraviolet–visible light spectroscopy measurements support the existence of 4-nitrosophenol as a stable reaction intermediate. We propose that dissolved oxygen is consumed, both by oxidizing 4-nitrosophenol (an intermediate) and reoxidizing the reduced catalyst surface, resulting in the commonly observed “induction period” in the reaction kinetics. Upon complete consumption of dissolved oxygen, subsequent reduction to 4-aminophenol can occur. A complete kinetic analysis including modeling is presented, conceptually fitting data from recent reports in the literature, as well as fitting data from our own experiments.
Strachan et al. (Thu,) studied this question.