Gold Nanoparticle Purification Methods

Discrete Methods and Applications

To purify gold nanoparticles, various methods have been developed to address the challenges associated with their purification. The purification of gold nanoparticles is particularly challenging due to the similar solubility of the nanoparticles and impurities, making standard purification techniques inadequate or inefficient. One method involves the stabilization of gold nanoparticles with a cationic surfactant followed by microliquid-liquid extraction in ionic liquid (López‐Lorente et al., 2012). Additionally, centrifugation-assisted sedimentation has been adopted to purify gold nanorods, taking advantage of the different shape-dependent sedimentation coefficient of the nanoparticles (Liu et al., 2011). Furthermore, the functionalization of gold nanoparticles has been achieved through techniques such as ligand exchange with bulky thiols and phosphines, layer-by-layer polyelectrolyte wrapping, and silica coating (Lohse et al., 2013). The most common method for stabilizing gold nanoparticles involves the formation of the thiolate S‐Au bond, frequently by the reaction of thiols with the gold surface (Bard et al., 2018).

Moreover, the purification of reaction mixtures containing gold nanoparticles has been achieved through centrifugation (Jeon et al., 2016). Gold nanoparticles have been prepared by a chemical reduction method using potassium tetrachloroaurate as the gold source and sodium borohydride as the reducing agent (Tsalsabila et al., 2022). Additionally, a photocatalytic water purification method using visible light has been reported, utilizing 5 nm gold nanoparticles attached to the surface of silica nanospheres as an inactive support to prevent nanoparticle coalescence or sintering (Gomez et al., 2014). Furthermore, shape-selective purification of gold nanorods has been achieved using a simple centrifugation method (Boksebeld et al., 2017).

The citrate reduction method has been utilized for the surface modification of gold nanoparticles, providing flexibility in size control and bridging the size gap (Zhu et al., 2003). Gold nanoparticles have been characterized using techniques such as UV-vis spectrophotometry, inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) (Chithrani et al., 2006). Additionally, gold nanoparticles have been synthesized by a chemical reduction technique employing L-Tryptophane as a reducing agent (Akbarzadeh et al., 2009). Furthermore, gold nanoparticles have been synthesized by a citrate reduction method, with a variety of modification methods (Vernickaite et al., 2016).

In summary, the purification of gold nanoparticles involves various techniques such as stabilization with surfactants, centrifugation-assisted sedimentation, functionalization through ligand exchange and coating, and surface modification using the citrate reduction method. These methods address the challenges associated with the purification of gold nanoparticles, enabling their use in a wide range of applications.

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References:

Akbarzadeh, A., Zare, D., Farhangi, A., Mehrabi, M., Norouzian, D., Tangestani, S., … & Bararpour, N. (2009). Synthesis and characterization of gold nanoparticles by tryptophane. American Journal of Applied Sciences, 6(4), 691-695. https://doi.org/10.3844/ajas.2009.691.695

Bard, A., Rondon, R., Marquez, D., Lanterna, A., & Scaiano, J. (2018). How fast can thiols bind to the gold nanoparticle surface?. Photochemistry and Photobiology, 94(6), 1109-1115. https://doi.org/10.1111/php.13010

Boksebeld, M., Blanchard, N., Jaffal, A., Chevolot, Y., & Monnier, V. (2017). Shape-selective purification of gold nanorods with low aspect ratio using a simple centrifugation method. Gold Bulletin, 50(1), 69-76. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13404-017-0197-9

Chithrani, D., Ghazani, A., & Chan, W. (2006). Determining the size and shape dependence of gold nanoparticle uptake into mammalian cells. Nano Letters, 6(4), 662-668. https://doi.org/10.1021/nl052396o

Gomez, L., Sebastian, V., Arruebo, M., Santamaria, J., & Cronin, S. (2014). Plasmon-enhanced photocatalytic water purification. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 16(29), 15111. https://doi.org/10.1039/c4cp00229f

Jeon, J., Shim, H., Mushtaq, S., Choi, M., Park, S., Choi, D., … & Jang, B. (2016). An optimized protocol for the efficient radiolabeling of gold nanoparticles by using a <sup>125</sup>i-labeled azide prosthetic group. Journal of Visualized Experiments, (116). https://doi.org/10.3791/54759

Liu, L., Guo, Z., Xu, L., Xu, R., & Xiang, L. (2011). Facile purification of colloidal nir-responsive gold nanorods using ions assisted self-assembly. Nanoscale Research Letters, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/1556-276x-6-143

Lohse, S., Eller, J., Sivapalan, S., Plews, M., & Murphy, C. (2013). A simple millifluidic benchtop reactor system for the high-throughput synthesis and functionalization of gold nanoparticles with different sizes and shapes. Acs Nano, 7(5), 4135-4150. https://doi.org/10.1021/nn4005022

López‐Lorente, Á., Simonet, B., & Valcárcel, M. (2012). Rapid analysis of gold nanoparticles in liver and river water samples. The Analyst, 137(15), 3528. https://doi.org/10.1039/c2an35343a

Tsalsabila, A., Herbani, Y., & Sari, Y. (2022). Study of lysine and asparagine as capping agent for gold nanoparticles. Journal of Physics Conference Series, 2243(1), 012102. https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/2243/1/012102

Vernickaite, E., Bubniene, U., Cesiulis, H., Ramanavicius, A., & Podlaha, E. (2016). A hybrid approach to fabricated nanowire-nanoparticle composites of a co-w alloy and au nanoparticles. Journal of the Electrochemical Society, 163(7), D344-D348. https://doi.org/10.1149/2.1401607jes

Zhu, T., Vasilev, K., Kreiter, M., Mittler, S., & Knoll, W. (2003). Surface modification of citrate-reduced colloidal gold nanoparticles with 2-mercaptosuccinic acid. Langmuir, 19(22), 9518-9525. https://doi.org/10.1021/la035157u