The pollution of the aquatic environment is still a concern for researchers in this era of industrial development that must be adequately addressed to prevent damage to the ecosystem. One of the pollutant materials was p-nitrophenol (PNP), which is highly toxic to humans and nature. PNP can be reduced to p-aminophenol (PAP), which is relatively safe for the environment and beneficial for drug synthesis. Herein, we studied hybrid Au nanomaterial as a heterogeneous catalyst for transforming PNP to PAP. The Au nanoparticle was supported on zeolite ZSM-5 by organosilane, i.e., (3-Aminopropyl)-triethoxysilane (APTES). The use of APTES (Au/APTES-ZSM-5) resulted in a smaller gold nanoparticle with an average size of ∼ 3 nm, compared to Au/ZSM-5 with an average gold nanoparticle size of ∼ 15 nm. In addition, the leaching test also showed that Au/APTES-ZSM-5 was more stable than Au/ZSM-5, as APTES could improve the interaction between Au and ZSM-5. The kinetic tests showed that the Au/APTES-ZSM-5 is more effective in catalyzing the reduction of PNP to PAP, as indicated by a higher rate constant (k_obs = 6.00 × 10⁻¹ min⁻¹) compared to that of Au/ZSM-5 (k_obs = 1.13 × 10⁻¹ min⁻¹). Ultimately, the reaction mechanism applied in this study follows the Eley-Rideal mechanism, in which PNP is adsorbed on the catalyst surface before reacting with NaBH₄ to produce p-aminophenol.

在这个工业发展的时代，水环境的污染仍然是研究人员关注的问题，必须充分解决以防止对生态系统的破坏。其中一种污染物是对硝基苯酚 (PNP)，它对人类和自然界具有剧毒。PNP 可以简化为p-氨基苯酚（PAP），对环境相对安全，有利于药物合成。在此，我们研究了杂化 Au 纳米材料作为将 PNP 转化为 PAP 的多相催化剂。Au 纳米颗粒通过有机硅烷（即（3-氨基丙基）-三乙氧基硅烷 (APTES)）负载在沸石 ZSM-5 上。APTES (Au/APTES-ZSM-5) 的使用产生了更小的金纳米颗粒，平均尺寸为 ~ 3 nm，而 Au/ZSM-5 的平均金纳米颗粒尺寸为 ~ 15 nm。此外，浸出试验还表明 Au/APTES-ZSM-5 比 Au/ZSM-5 更稳定，因为 APTES 可以改善 Au 和 ZSM-5 之间的相互作用。动力学测试表明，Au/APTES-ZSM-5 在催化 PNP 还原为 PAP 方面更有效，如较高的速率常数 ( k _obs = 6.00 × 10 ^-1 min ^-1 ) 与 Au/ZSM-5 ( k _obs  = 1.13 × 10 ^-1 min ^-1 ) 相比。最终，本研究中应用的反应机理遵循 Eley-Rideal 机理，其中 PNP 在与 NaBH ₄反应生成对氨基苯酚之前吸附在催化剂表面。