Abstract
The paper reports on the elaboration of silicon nanowires decorated with silver (SiNWs-Ag NPs) or copper (SiNWs-Cu NPs) nanoparticles and the investigation of their catalytic properties for the reduction of 4-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol. The SiNW arrays were produced through chemical etching of crystalline silicon in HF/AgNO3 aqueous solution. The metal nanoparticles were deposited on the SiNW substrates through chemical bath immersion in a metal salt/hydrofluoric acid aqueous solution. The SiNWs decorated with Ag NPs and Cu NPs were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), x-ray diffraction (XRD) and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The catalytic activity of the SiNWs loaded with metal nanoparticles was evaluated for the reduction of 4-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol in the presence of sodium borohydride (NaBH4). The substrates exhibited good catalytic performance toward nitrophenol with a full reduction in less than 30 s for the SiNWs-Cu NPs.