We reported an aqueous synthesis of urchin-like gold nanoparticles (NPs) in the presence of hydroquinone through a seed-mediated growth approach. By altering the feed ratio of hydroquinone, seeds, and additional HAuCl4, the diameters of urchin-like NPs were tunable from 55 to 200 nm. Accordingly, the centers of surface plasmon resonance absorption shifted from 555 to 702 nm. Systematical analysis revealed that the generation of urchin-like particles as well as their size evolution strongly depended on the reactivity of gold ions, mainly controlled by the concentration of hydroquinone. At low hydroquinone concentration, only spherical particles were achieved. The increase of the hydroquinone concentration promoted a kinetics-favored deposition of gold atoms on the (111) lattice planes and thereby the growth of branches. Moreover, the as-prepared urchin-like particles possessed good structural stability, which could be kept in the growth solution for more than 10 days without morphology variation.

Metal nanoparticles are promising catalysts for dye degradation in treating wastewater despite the challenges of recycling and stability. In this study, we have introduced a simple way to prepare Au@polypyrrole (PPy)/Fe3O4 catalysts with Au nanoparticles embedded in a PPy/Fe3O4 capsule shell. The PPy/Fe3O4 capsule shell used as a support was constructed in one-step, which not only dramatically simplified the preparation process, but also easily controlled the magnetic properties of the catalysts through adjusting the dosage of FeCl2·4H2O. The component Au nanoparticles could catalyze the reduction of methylene blue dye with NaBH4 as a reducing agent and the reaction rate constant was calculated through the pseudo-first-order reaction equation. The Fe3O4 nanoparticles permitted quick recycling of the catalysts with a magnet due to their room-temperature superparamagnetic properties; therefore, the catalysts exhibited good reusability. In addition to catalytic activity and reusability, stability is also an important property for catalysts. Because both Au and Fe3O4 nanoparticles were wrapped in the PPy shell, compared with precursor polystyrene/Au composites and bare Fe3O4 nanoparticles, the stability of Au@PPy/Fe3O4 hollow capsules was greatly enhanced. Since the current method is simple and flexible to create recyclable catalysts with high stability, it would promote the practicability of metal nanoparticle catalysts in industrial polluted water treatment.

Chitin is the second most abundant biopolymer in nature and has tremendous potential in renewable materials for packaging, energy storage, reinforced composites, and biomedical engineering. Despite attractive properties, including biodegradability, antibacterial activity, and high strength, chitin is not utilized widely due to strong molecular interactions, which make solubilization and processing difficult. We report a high pressure homogenization route to produce pure chitin nanofibers (ChNFs) starting with a mildly acidic aqueous dispersion of purified crab α-chitin. The well-dispersed ChNFs with diameter ∼20 nm do not form strong network structures under conditions explored herein and can be directly processed into useful materials, bypassing the need to dissolve the chitin. Dried ChNFs form pure self-standing chitin films with the lowest to-date reported O2 and CO2 permeabilities of 0.006 and 0.018 barrer, respectively. Combined with high flexibility and optical transparency, these materials are ideal candidates for sustainable barrier packaging.

Yolk-shell composites with a movable Fe(x)O(y) core and mesoporous SiO2 (mSiO2) shell, together with Pd nanoparticles uniformly anchoring on the inner surface, were prepared. The structure and composition of as-prepared catalysts were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller measurement and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, respectively. They are ideal candidates as nanoreactors for heterogeneous catalysis due to their special structure. The catalytic performance of Fe(x)O(y)/Pd@mSiO2 composites was studied by the reduction of 4-nitrophenol with NaBH4 as a reducing agent. Their reaction rate constant was calculated according to the pseudo-first-order reaction equation. The catalysts could be easily recycled by an external magnetic field due to their superparamagnetic property. Besides good catalytic property, another merit of Fe(x)O(y)/Pd@mSiO2 composites was high stability. We have compared the stability between Fe(x)O(y)/Pd@mSiO2 and Fe3O4@C/Pd composites by ultrasonic treatment and HNO3 solution etching, the stability of the former was much better than the later.