| Description |
Metallic nanoparticles are commonly used as catalysts in industrial and academic settings. Recent observations that bimetallic nanoparticles can have enhanced activity over their monometallic counterparts has increased the interest in their synthesis and application to new catalytic systems. Combining enzymes and metallic nanoparticle active sites in hybrid materials shows promise in performing sequential, tandem reactions. A goal of this research was to investigate new synthesis methods for synthesizing these tandem catalytic materials. A direct synthesis method for using glucose oxidase as both a reducing agent and a stabilizing agent for synthesis of glucose oxidase-bound Au nanoparticles was performed. It was shown that the glucose oxidase is deactivated during this synthesis and did not retain its catalytic activity. Additionally, a method for synthesizing bimetallic, gold-palladium nanoparticles was investigated with promising results. Future work will post-synthetically bind enzymes to the surface of these AuPd nanoparticles. Additionally, in a separate reaction system, the use of a Fe2+ catalyst to degrade p-nitrophenol was explored as preliminary data for future work, but more experimentation is needed to draw a precise conclusion. |
