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Gold nanoparticle synthesis recipes were extracted from the literature to obtain data-driven hypotheses for synthesis outcome morphology and size. Used images from https://Flaticon.com.
Employing small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), we explore the conditions under which assembly of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) grafted with the thermosensitive polymer poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) emerges. We find that short-range order assembly emerges by combining the addition of electrolytes or polyelectrolytes with raising the temperature of the suspensions above the lower-critical solution temperature (LCST) of PNIPAM. Our results show that the longer the PNIPAM chain is, the better organization in the assembled clusters. Interestingly, without added electrolytes, there is no evidence of AuNPs assembly as a function of temperature, although untethered PNIPAM is known to undergo a coil-to-globule transition above its LCST. This study demonstrates another approach to assembling potential thermosensitive nanostructures for devices by leveraging the unique properties of PNIPAM.
We report on the assembly of gold nanoparticle (AuNPs) superlattices at the liquid/vapor interface and in the bulk of their suspensions. Interparticle distances in the assemblies are achieved on multiple length scales by varying chain lengths of surface grafted AuNPs by polyethylene glycol (PEG) with molecular weights in the range 2000–40,000 Da. Crystal structures and lattice constants in both 2D and 3D assemblies are determined by synchrotron-based surface-sensitive and small-angle X-ray scattering. Here, assuming knowledge of grafting density, we show that experimentally determined interparticle distances are adequately modeled by spherical brushes close to the θ point (Flory–Huggins parameter, x ≈ 1/2) for 2D superlattices at a liquid interface and a nonsolvent (χ = ∞) for the 3D dry superlattices.
Using synchrotron-based small-angle X-ray scattering techniques, we demonstrate that poly(ethylene glycol)-functionalized gold nanoparticles (PEG-AuNPs) are assembled into close-packed structures that include short-range order with face-centered cubic structure, where crystalline qualities are varied by controlling the electrolyte concentration, pH, and temperature of the suspensions. Here, we show that interpolymer complexation with poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) is induced by lowering the pH level of the PEG-AuNPs suspensions, and furthermore, increasing the temperature of the suspension strengthens interparticle attraction, leading to improved supercrystal structures. Our results indicate that this strategy creates robust nanoparticle superlattices with high thermal stability. The effects of PAA and PEG chain lengths on the assemblies are also investigated, and their optimal conditions for creating improved superlattices are discussed.
Gold nanoparticles play an important role in plasmonic arrays, including, but not limited to, photovoltaic, biomedical, sensing, optical, and catalytic applications. For plasmonic arrays, control over spatial variables of the array, such as nanoparticle size and spacing, must be judiciously cared for. In this work, we present here a multistep deposit/dewet process for nanoparticle ensemble fabrication that exploits thermally driven solid-state diffusional dewetting, coupled with Ostwald ripening, to tune the nanoparticle size or area coverage for a particular particle–particle spacing. The initial dewetting process defines the spatial period of the array, with subsequent dewetting steps growing the nanoparticles while adhering to the “seeded” period from the first dewetting. Following the fifth deposit/dewet cycle, relative to the first cycle, the mean nanoparticle height exhibited a percent increase of 90 and 66% for 5 and 7.5 nm multistep deposit/dewet processes, respectively, while minimally impacting the ensemble period. This provides unprecedented control over the spatial parameters of large-scale nanoparticle ensembles for plasmonic and etching-mask applications where a particular particle size and spacing are desired. Due to the simplicity of the technique and its area scalability, the cyclic deposition/dewetting process is shown here to be a method that can be easily scaled up to apply to large-area (up to meter-size) applications.
A method of producing dendritic gold nanoparticles by combining a gold precursor solution, a reducing agent, and a bifunctional peptide having an amine-rich amino acid sequence into a buffered aqueous solution in a single container, and agitating the mixture causing the formation of the dendritic gold nanoparticles having a surface with a positive charge and a second end portion of the bifunctional peptide exposed on the surface of the dendritic gold nanoparticles. The dendritic gold nanoparticles may be used to deliver therapeutic, diagnostic, and/or immunogenic amino acid sequences as portions of the bifunctional peptide.
Abstract Gold nanoparticles are highly desired for a range of technological applications due to their tunable properties, which are dictated by the size and shape of the constituent particles. Many heuristic methods for controlling the morphological characteristics of gold nanoparticles are well known. However, the underlying mechanisms controlling their size and shape remain poorly understood, partly due to the immense range of possible combinations of synthesis parameters. Data-driven methods can offer insight to help guide understanding of these underlying mechanisms, so long as sufficient synthesis data are available. To facilitate data mining in this direction, we have constructed and made publicly available a dataset of codified gold nanoparticle synthesis protocols and outcomes extracted directly from the nanoparticle materials science literature using natural language processing and text-mining techniques. This dataset contains 5,154 data records, each representing a single gold nanoparticle synthesis article, filtered from a database of 4,973,165 publications. Each record contains codified synthesis protocols and extracted morphological information from a total of 7,608 experimental and 12,519 characterization paragraphs.
Linker-free magnetite nanoparticles (Fe3O4NPs)-decorated gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) were grown using a new protocol that can be used as a new platform for synthesis of other intact metal–metal oxide nanocomposites without the need for linkers. This minimizes the distance between the metal and metal oxide nanoparticles and ensures the optimum combined effects between the two material interfaces. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy confirmed the successful synthesis of the Fe3O4-Au nanocomposite, without any change in the magnetite phase. Characterization, using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy, revealed the composite to consist of AuNPs of 70 ± 10 nm diameter decorated with tiny 10 ± 3 nm diameter Fe3O4NPs in Au:Fe mass ratio of 5:1. The prepared Fe3O4-Au nanocomposite was embedded in ionic liquid (IL) and applied for the modification of glassy carbon electrode (GCE) for the electrochemical detection of As(III) in water. By combining the excellent catalytic properties of the AuNPs with the high adsorption capacity of the tiny Fe3O4NPs towards As(III), as well as the good conductivity of IL, the Fe3O4-Au-IL nanocomposite showed excellent performance in the square wave anodic stripping voltammetry detection of As(III). Under the optimized conditions, a linear range of 1 to 100 μg/L was achieved with a detection limit of 0.22 μg/L (S/N = 3), and no interference from 100-fold higher concentrations of a wide variety of cations and anions found in water. A very low residual standard deviation of 1.16% confirmed the high precision/reproducibility of As(III) analysis and the reliability of the Fe3O4-Au-IL sensing interface. Finally, this proposed sensing interface was successfully applied to analyzing synthetic river and wastewater samples with a 95–101% recovery, demonstrating excellent accuracy, even in complex synthetic river and wastewater samples containing high concentrations of humic acid without any sample pretreatments.
Hybrid nanoparticles composed of gold nanoparticles and carbon nanodots provide great signal amplification in SERS detection of herbicide molecules.
Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly impacted global economies and healthcare systems, revealing critical vulnerabilities in both. In response, our study introduces a sensitive and highly specific detection method for cDNA, leveraging Luminescence Resonance Energy Transfer (LRET) between upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), and achieves a detection limit of 242 fM for SARS-CoV-2 cDNA. This innovative sensing platform utilizes UCNPs conjugated with one primer and AuNPs with another, targeting the 5′ and 3′ ends of the SARS-CoV-2 cDNA, respectively, enabling precise differentiation of mismatched cDNA sequences and significantly improving detection specificity. Through rigorous experimental analysis, we established a quenching efficiency range from 10.4 % to 73.6 %, with an optimal midpoint of 42 %, thereby demonstrating the superior sensitivity of our method. Our work uses SARS-CoV-2 cDNA as a model system to demonstrate the potential of our LRET-based detection method. This proof-of-concept study highlights the adaptability of our platform for future diagnostic applications. Instrumental validation confirms the synthesis and formation of AuNPs, addressing the need for experimental verification of the preparation of nanomaterial. Our comparative analysis with existing SARS-CoV-2 detection methods revealed that our approach provides a low detection limit and high specificity for target cDNA sequences, underscoring its potential for targeted COVID-19 diagnostics. This study demonstrates the superior sensitivity and adaptability of using UCNPs and AuNPs for cDNA detection, offering significant advances in rapid, accessible diagnostic technologies. Our method, characterized by its low detection limit and high precision, represents a critical step forward in developing next-generation biosensors for managing current and future viral outbreaks. By adjusting primer sequences, this platform can be tailored to detect other pathogens, contributing to the enhancement of global healthcare responsiveness and infectious disease control.
Radiolytic synthesis has been used to produce a plethora of unsupported and supported metallic nanoparticles in batch. As proof of a new concept, we evaluated the formation of gold nanoparticles by radiolytic synthesis in continuous flow using a millifluidic reactor. A mixture of gold ions solution, branched polyethyleneimine, and ethylene glycol yielded gold nanoparticles with a mean size of 3.4 ± 1.0 nm after irradiation with an X-ray irradiator (127 Gy/min) at an absorbed dose of 5.1 kGy. The morphology and size distribution of gold nanoparticles was influenced by AgNO 3 , where its absence resulted in a mean size of 20.9 ± 15.8 nm. The radiolytic synthesis of gold nanoparticles in continuous flow was achieved in short reaction times (<60 min), at room temperature, and with low concentrations of both stabilizing and reducing agents. Furthermore, these results demonstrate the potential of radiolytic synthesis in continuous flow for high-throughput formation of metallic nanoparticles with controlled specifications in size and distribution.
The ellipsometric method reported in the immediately preceding article was developed in conjunction with a method of using gold nanoparticles as labels on biomolecules that one seeks to detect. The purpose of the labeling is to exploit the optical properties of the gold nanoparticles in order to amplify the measurable ellipsometric effects and thereby to enable ultrasensitive detection of the labeled biomolecules without need to develop more-complex ellipsometric instrumentation. The colorimetric, polarization, light-scattering, and other optical properties of nanoparticles depend on their sizes and shapes. In the present method, these size-and-shape-dependent properties are used to magnify the polarization of scattered light and the diattenuation and retardance of signals derived from ellipsometry. The size-and-shape-dependent optical properties of the nanoparticles make it possible to interrogate the nanoparticles by use of light of various wavelengths, as appropriate, to optimally detect particles of a specific type at high sensitivity. Hence, by incorporating gold nanoparticles bound to biomolecules as primary or secondary labels, the performance of ellipsometry as a means of detecting the biomolecules can be improved. The use of gold nanoparticles as labels in ellipsometry has been found to afford sensitivity that equals or exceeds the sensitivity achieved by use of fluorescence-based methods. Potential applications for ellipsometric detection of gold nanoparticle-labeled biomolecules include monitoring molecules of interest in biological samples, in-vitro diagnostics, process monitoring, general environmental monitoring, and detection of biohazards.
Doping gold nanoparticles within covalent organic frameworks (AuNPs@COFs) has garnered enormous momentum due to their unique properties and broad applications. Nevertheless, prevailing multi-step synthesis is plagued with low time efficiency, eco-unfriendliness, and tedious protocols. Herein, we introduce a rapid, sustainable, scalable, one-step mechanochemical strategy for synthesizing up to four AuNPs-doped COFs via steel ball milling within an hour under ambient conditions. This approach overcomes the synthetic barriers of conventional multi-step solution-based methods, such as extended reaction times (5 days), milligram scale, the use of toxic solvents, elevated temperatures, and reliance on external reducing agents. One exemplary AuNPs@COF (AuNPs@DMTP-TPB) exhibits high crystallinity, porosity, small AuNP size, and uniform dispersion (5.4±0.6 nm), surpassing its counterpart synthesized via multi-step solution-based methods (6.4±1.1 nm). Notably, the gram-scale synthesis of AuNPs@DMTP-TPB can be successfully achieved. Control experiments suggest that the in situ formation of AuNPs is attributed to the galvanic reduction of gold precursor by stainless steel apparatus. As a proof-of-concept catalytic application, AuNPs@DMTP-TPB demonstrates remarkable catalytic activity and recyclability for the aqueous reduction of 4-nitrophenol under ambient conditions. This study provides an environmentally benign and fast pathway to synthesize AuNPs@COFs via mechanochemistry for the first time, opening tremendous possibilities for heterogeneous catalysis and beyond.
Properties of gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) supported on Si substrates, which have been the focus of recent attention, depend sensitively on the size, structure, and coordination of Au NPs as well as on the processes of interdiffusion and chemical bonding at the Au–Si interface. There is a great need, therefore, for developing structural techniques capable of imaging such nanosystems in atomic detail. Here, it is discussed how the atomic structure of nanometer‐sized Au NPs deposited on a silicon surface can be determined by using high‐energy X‐ray diffraction measurements in combination with an analysis based on atomic‐pair‐distribution functions and advanced reverse Monte Carlo methods. This approach delivers simple and incisive pictures of the structure of Au clusters on Si and reveals direct structural evidence for the emergence of a Au‐silicide interface following room temperature deposition of Au NPs on Si. This study will contribute to designing Au/Si nanostructures with desirable properties.
The tri-hydrogen cation (H+ 3 ) plays a central role in proton-transfer chemistry, astrochemical pathways, and hydrogen plasma environments, acting as a key indicator of ultrafast proton rearrangement. Although H+ 3 formation is studied extensively in the gas phase, its surface-mediated generation and its sensitiv- ity to nanoparticle morphology remain largely unexplored. Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), which can localize surface charge and sustain strong electric fields, offer an ideal platform to probe such nonequilibrium reaction pathways. Us- ing reaction nanoscopy, we spatially map H+ 3 production on AuNPs exposed to intense femtosecond laser fields. By comparing spherical and faceted nanopar- ticles, we demonstrate how morphology modulates charge density and governs reaction efficiency. We find that sharp features on faceted particles concen- trate charge more effectively, promoting molecular fragmentation and enabling proton rearrangement and migration that enhance H+ 3 yields. This work opens new directions for exploiting strong-field interactions at metal interfaces to drive nanoscale reactivity and photocatalysis.
A fast gold nanoparticle synthesis without stabilizer in plasma–microdroplet interaction is identified.
The search for a sustainable, alternative fuel source to replace fossil fuels has led to an increased interest in hydrogen fuel. This combustible gas is not only clean-burning but can readily be produced via the hydrolysis of sodium borohydride. The main drawback of this reaction is that the reaction occurs relatively slowly and requires a catalyst to improve efficiency. This study explored a novel composite material made by combining gold nanoparticles and fused graphene-like materials (AuFGLM) as a catalyst for generating hydrogen via sodium borohydride. The novel fused graphene-like material (FGLM) was made with a sustainable dextrose solution and by using a pressure-processing method. Imaging techniques showed that FGLM appears to be an effective support template for nanoparticles. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopy were used to characterize and determine the size, shape, and structure of nanoparticles and composites. The TEM study characterized the fused carbon backbone as it began to take on a rounder shape. The TEM images also revealed that the average diameter of the gold nanoparticle was roughly 23 nm. The FTIR study confirmed O-H, C-C, and C=O as functional groups in the materials. The EDS analysis showed that the composite contained approximately 6.3% gold by weight. The crystal structures of FGLM and AuFGLM were identified via P-XRD analysis. Various reaction conditions were used to test the catalytic ability of AuFGLM, including various solution pHs, temperatures, and doses of NaBH 4 . It was observed that optimal reaction conditions included high temperature, an acidic solution pH, and a higher dose of NaBH 4 . The activation energy of the reaction was determined to be 45.5 kJ mol -1 , and it was found that the catalyst could be used multiple times in a row with an increased volume of hydrogen produced in ensuing trials. The activation energy of this novel catalyst is competitive compared to similar catalysts and its ability to produce hydrogen over multiple uses makes the material an exciting choice for catalyzing the hydrolysis of NaBH 4 for use as a hydrogen fuel source.
Droplets have long intrigued researchers due to their ability to exhibit complex and fascinating behavior when subjected to external stimuli. Here, a coupled oscillatory behavior of gold-nanoparticle-surfactant-laden aqueous droplets is investigated at an oil-oil interface stimulated by light. This study shows that the interaction between light and the droplets gives rise to a range of oscillatory modes, including bouncing and clustering, where droplets exhibit collective movement. From experiment and numerical simulations, this study elucidates the underlying mechanism: upon laser irradiation, gold nanoparticles convert light into heat, generating asymmetric thermal gradients that drive upward thermocapillary flows and a hydrodynamic force from photothermal convection. These forces compete with gravity and buoyancy to induce droplet bouncing, while the resulting asymmetric flow fields bias neighboring droplets toward the illuminated droplet, leading to clustering. These findings not only expand the library of dynamic droplet behavior but also offer insights into the potential applications of light-driven systems in materials science, soft robotics, and microfluidics.