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.

中文翻译：

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4-硝基苯酚还原：探索模型反应的推定机理

我们报告了银纳米粒子催化的4-硝基苯酚还原的重新解释。质谱法和紫外-可见光光谱法测量结果支持了4-亚硝基苯酚作为稳定的反应中间体的存在。我们建议通过氧化4-亚硝基苯酚（一种中间体）和再氧化还原的催化剂表面来消耗溶解的氧，从而导致反应动力学中通常观察到的“诱导期”。溶解氧完全消耗后，随后可能还原为4-氨基苯酚。提出了包括模型在内的完整动力学分析，概念上是文献中最近报告的数据拟合，也是我们实验中的拟合数据。