In this study, we demonstrate for the first time the successful fabrication of well-dispersed ultrafine silver nanoparticles inside metal–organic frameworks through a single step gamma irradiation at room temperature. HKUST-1 crystals are soaked in silver nitrate aqueous solution and irradiated with a Cobalt 60 source across a range of irradiation doses to synthesize highly uniformly distributed silver nano-particles. The average size of the silver nanoparticles across the Ag@HKUST-1 materials is found to vary between 1.4 and 3 nm for dose exposures between 1 and 200 kGy, respectively. The Ag@HKUST-1 hybrid crystals exhibit strong surface plasmon resonance and are highly durable and efficient catalytic materials for the reduction of 4-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol (up to 14.46 × 10−3 s−1 for 1 kGy Ag@HKUST-1). The crystals can be easily recycled for at least five successive cycles of reaction with a conversion efficiency higher than 99.9%. The gamma irradiation is demonstrated to be an effective and environmental friendly process for the synthesis of nano-particles across confined metal–organic frameworks at room temperature with potential applications in environmental science.
