Abstract
A standard technique of electroless gold deposition was modied by changing the composition of Ag-based activation solution.This allows preparation of two types of poly(ethyleneterephthalate) (PET) track etched membranes coated entirely with gold after 1, 5, and 24 h of reaction at 4 • C.After dissolving the polymer template, gold nanotubes with outer diameter of 7080 nm were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and X-ray diraction.Reduction of p-nitrophenol to p-aminophenol by sodium borohydride was used to investigate the catalytic activity of as-prepared Au/PET membrane.All experiments were carried out for ve consecutive cycles and rate constant of the pseudo-rst-order reaction was calculated.It was found that Au/Ag/PET composites prepared after activation for 3 min in Ag-based solution (with potassium sodium tartrate as reducing agent) more eective catalyst (k = 0.087 min -1 ) was obtained when the Au/PET samples activated with ammonia silver nitrate solution (k = 0.041 min -1 ).