Facile synthesis and excellent catalytic activity of gold nanoparticles on graphene oxide

For the first time, Au nanoparticles on graphene oxide (GO-AuNPs) were successfully fabricated without applying any additional reductants, just by the redox reaction between AuCl4−1 and GO. Their structure was characterized by transmission electron microscopy and x-ray powder diffraction. The results show that flower-like AuNPs were successfully dispersed on GO surface. Importantly, they showed a high catalytic activity for the Suzuki-Miyaura coupling reaction in an aqueous medium.