Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Journal of Polymers and the Environment https://doi.org/10.1007/s10924-019-01630-9 ORIGINAL PAPER Emerging Use of Homogenic and Heterogenic Nano‑colloids Synthesized via Size‑Controllable Technique in Catalytic Potency Hossam E. Emam 1  · Mariana A. Attia 2  · Farida M. S. E. El‑Dars 2  · Hanan B. Ahmed 2 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019 Abstract The current work demonstrate a controllable technique for synthesis of silver nanoparticles and gold nanoparticles versus their bimetallic nano-alloy as homogenic and heterogenic nano-colloids and monitoring their employment as nano-catalysts. The required nano-colloids were spontaneously in-grained by using carboxymethyl methyl cellulose (CMC) as nano-generator and protector. Revolution of UV–Vis spectroscopic data afrmed that, surface plasmon resonance (SPR) peak characterized for Ag-Au bimetallic nano-alloys was ranged in 480–495 nm and X-ray difraction patterns also approved the main role of CMC in production of bimetallic nanostructures. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) and zetasizer analyses were detected for monitoring the efect of reaction conditions on the topographical features and size distribution of the as-generated nano- colloids. Small sized Ag monometallic of 9.7 nm was enlarged to 16.8–34.2 nm for Ag–Au bimetallic nanostructures. The catalytic potency of the produced nano-colloids was monitored for the reduction of p-nitroaniline and the results revealed that, there was a quite strong relationship between catalytic activity and composition of nano-colloids. Half time of the reduc- tion was sharply decreased from 22.95 to 5.27 min for Ag monometallic and Ag–Au bimetallic nano-colloids, respectively. Using of the bimetallic nanostructure as nano-catalyst could be benefcial for accelerating the reduction reaction 23 times. Keywords CMC · Ag–AuNPs · Heterogenic nano-colloids · Catalytic potency Introduction Manufacturing of bimetallic nanostructures is an advanced method for preparation of new matter with the all of difer- ent advantageous than their starting metals, and alloying metal nano-objects also show to exhibit formidable physical and chemical properties rather than their bulk samples [1]. According to atomic ordering, the bimetallic nanostructures are categorized to four types; alloy, intermetallic, sub-clus- ters and core–shells [2], and the diferences between these types could clarifed as follows; (i) in alloyed nanostructures, the nanocrystals are composed of randomly mixed metals, (ii) intermetallic nanocrystals is characterized by a well ordered mixing of metals, (iii) sub-cluster structures, which is well known as segregated structures is mainly constituted of separated elements shared in an interface, and (iv) core- shell structure is composed of a metal in core surrounded by another metal in a shell [3]. One of the prominent efects is to manufacture soluble and size regulated alloyed structures. According to literature [4], bimetallic nanostructures showed to have excelled the starting monometallic structures which is attributed to their enhanced electronic, optical and catalytic performances. Additionally, the composition, shape manipulation and size dimensioning are the main parameters which tailoring the properties and applications of the bimetallic alloys. There are two types of metallic alloys, random and intermetal- lic alloys, in the former, the elements of similar sizes are arranged haphazardly, while in the latter, the metals com- posed the alloy are of diferent atomic sizes. Various factors Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10924-019-01630-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Hossam E. Emam hossamelemam@yahoo.com * Hanan B. Ahmed hananbasiony@gmail.com 1 Department of Pretreatment and Finishing of Cellulosic Based Textiles, Textile Industries Research Division, National Research Centre, 33 EL Buhouth St., Dokki, Giza 12622, Egypt 2 Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Helwan University, Ain-Helwan, Cairo 11795, Egypt