EN
A standard technique of electroless gold deposition was modified 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 70-80 nm were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction. 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 five consecutive cycles and rate constant of the pseudo-first-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 effective catalyst (k=0.087 min^{-1}) was obtained when the Au/PET samples activated with ammonia silver nitrate solution (k=0.041 min^{-1}).