Synthesis of zero-valent Au nanoparticles on chitosan coated NiAl layered double hydroxide microspheres for the discoloration of dyes in aqueous medium.

The catalyst activity of the nano Au was largely dependent on the particle size and the structure of the supported matrix to avoid particle agglomeration. Chitosan (CS) and CS coated layered double hydroxide of NiAl (LDH) microsphere were designed through a simple and an economic casting method. The CS and LDH microsphere were used for the impregnation and support of Au NPs and represented as Au/CS and Au/LDH and used for the sole and concurrent discoloration of methylene blue (MB) and rhodamine B (RB) dyes. The aim of the incorporation of NiAl-LDH to the CS host polymer is to increase the binding capacity of CS with Au NPs to make it more stable. The Au/LDH displaying stronger catalyst activity for both dyes discoloration, while found highly selective for MB dye. The high catalyst activity of Au/LDH is due to their small crystallite size which is 1.02 nm compared to 6.75 nm in Au/CS derived from Scherer's equation. The k value based on zero-order kinetics was higher with Au/LDH against MB and RB dyes which are 3.5 × 10 and 1.4 × 10 min respectively.