Preparation and properties of cotton stalk carbon/gold nanoparticles composite

In this paper, cotton stalk is used as a low-cost raw material source to prepare activated carbon with a unique porous structure with the assistance of chemical treatment. Gold nanoparticles as a multifunction building block were in situ assembled onto the carbon material, endowing this hybrid more promising applications. The as-fabricated CS carbon/AuNPs hybrid materials have been demonstrated to behave with catalytic and photothermal conversion properties, indicating that AuNPs successfully functionalise the activated carbon. The catalytic activity of the hybrid showed a glucose concentration-dependent effect (as low as 5 × 10−6 M). The water temperature of the sample containing the CS carbon/Au NPs increased rapidly, and even reached 55 °C, only exposed to light for 5 min. When used as catalyst of reduction of p-nitrophenol, the hybrid showed a good reusability up to10 cycles.