Kinetic analysis of the hydrolysis of methyl parathion using citrate-stabilized 10 nm gold nanoparticles.

"Ligand-free" citrate-stabilized 10 nm gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) promote the hydrolysis of the thiophosphate ester methyl parathion (MeP) on the surface of gold as a function of pH and two temperature values. At 50 °C, the active surface gold atoms show catalytic turnover ∼4 times after 8 h and little turnover of gold surface atoms at 25 °C with only 40% of the total atoms being active. From Michaelis-Menten analysis, k(cat) increases between pH 8 and 9 and decreases above pH 9.