Synthesis of bimetallic gold-silver alloy nanoclusters by simple mortar grinding.

A macroscale quantity of bimetallic Au-Ag alloy nanoclusters was achieved through sequential reduction by simple mortar grinding. The chitosan biopolymer was used as both a stabilizing and reducing agent. These nanoclusters exhibit excellent catalytic activity toward the reduction of 4-nitrophenol. This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2012