Fabrication of Highly Catalytically Active Gold Nanostructures on Filter-Paper and Their Applications towards Degradation of Environmental Pollutants

Supported metallic nanoparticles (NPs) have recently become a promising candidate for the degradation of environmental pollutants. In this work, we report the fabrication of highly catalytically active, surfactant-free interconnected Au nanostructures directly on filter paper. The width of nanostructures is only a few nanometers and they contain high concentration of low-coordination atoms. Our approach involves the immersion and evaporation of Au precursor solution on the filter paper and its subsequent reduction. This approach generates filter paper-based gold substrates (FPGS) not only in a simple and straightforward fashion that can be executed in a matter of minutes but can also be easily scaled up for large-scale production. Owing to their surfactant-free nature, FPGS are well suited for the degradation of both cationic and anionic dyes by providing large unhindered surface for dye adsorption. The FPGS were able to completely degrade methyl orange (MO) and methylene blue (MB) dyes and also showed excellent reusability and stability.