Porous gold nanobelts templated by metal-surfactant complex nanobelts.

Unique, porous gold nanobelts consisting of self-organized nanoparticles were synthesized in a high yield by morphology-preserved transformation from metal-surfactant complex precursor nanobelts formed by a bolaform surfactant dodecane-1,12-bis(trimethylammonium bromide) (N-C(12)-NBr(2)) and HAuCl(4). It was revealed that the precursor nanobelts of the stoichiometric N-C(12)-N(AuCl(4))(2) complex formed through electrostatic combination of the positively charged quaternary ammonium headgroups of N-C(n)-NBr(2) and the negatively charged AuCl(4)(-) ions. They were subsequently converted into porous gold nanobelts with shrunken sizes upon reduction by NaBH(4). The morphology of the produced gold nanostructures could be adjusted by changing the mixing ratio between N-C(12)-NBr(2) and HAuCl(4) in the reaction solution. It was found that the obtained porous Au nanobelts exhibited enhanced catalytic activity toward reduction of 4-nitrophenol compared with solid gold nanobelts, probably owing to their larger surface area and more active sites.