Mechanism of Gold Nanoparticle Formation by Reduction from Aqueous Solutions

摘要

Research on gold nanoparticles (GNPs) has been boosted by a wide variety of potential applications, such as electrochemistry, catalysis, medicine and production of nanodevices. The aqueous solutions reduction method for the synthesis of GNPs has known advantages but normally provides products with low nanoparticle concentration, wide size distribution and different morphology. Special attention is given in this paper to the formation of GNPs using sodium citrate as a reducing agent from aqueous solutions. The aim was the improved control of the synthesis process of GNPs and GNPs resulting in more homogeneous sizes and morphologies. The synthesis of GNPs was investigated changing the reaction parameters (e.g. the concentration of reduction agent and the reaction temperature). The morphological and structural characterization of GNPs investigated by TEM and chemical analysis were presented. GNPs produced at the IME, RWTH Aachen University were used as a benchmark for further applications. The full paper will be published soon after the conference in a scientific journal.