Applications, synthesis and characterization of gold nano particles

Abstract

In the Nano scale, gold exists in different shapes and sizes and behaves very differently from its bulk. From 1-100nm in size the gold nanoparticles exhibit an array of different size and shape related properties. These properties offer many uses for gold nanoparticles in the field of electronics, photonics, medicine, chemistry and other fields. Research and applications of gold nanoparticles has been growing rapidly over the last decade and is one of the most emerging and sought after nanoparticle. This thesis covers the Synthesis of Gold Nanoparticles using the Turkevich/citrate reduction method using HAuCl4 (Hydrogen tetrachloroaurate(III)) as precursor and trisodiumcitrate as reducing agent as well as stabilizing agent.Reaction parameters are changed to see the effect on the produced nanoparticles. Citrate amount, citrate concentrations and initial gold salt concentration are the parameters which were changed.After formation of these Gold Nanoparticles, characterization techniques like UV-Vis Spectroscopy, microscopy and some other detection methods were used to characterize and analyse the changes in sizes and shapes.By changing the synthesis parameters the size can be tuned to our preference and be used for further application.Some practical applications of GNPs are also discussed in this paper.