Gold nanorods are an important kind of nanoparticles characterized by peculiar plasmonic properties. Despite their widespread use in nanotechnology, the synthetic methods for the preparation of gold nanorods are still not fully optimized. In this paper we describe a new, highly efficient, two-step protocol based on the use of hydroquinone as a mild reducing agent. Our approach allows the preparation of nanorods with a good control of size and aspect ratio (AR) simply by varying the amount of hexadecyl trimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and silver ions (Ag+) present in the “growth solution”. By using this method, it is possible to markedly reduce the amount of CTAB, an expensive and cytotoxic reagent, necessary to obtain the elongated shape. Gold nanorods with an aspect ratio of about 3 can be obtained in the presence of just 50 mM of CTAB (versus 100 mM used in the standard protocol based on the use of ascorbic acid), while shorter gold nanorods are obtained using a concentration as low as 10 mM.
Funding for this research was provided by the Italian Ministry of Health under the frame of EuroNanoMed II (European Innovative Research & Technological Development Projects in Nanomedicine, project title: ”InNaSERSS”).
Materials
Gold(III) chloride trihydrate
Sigma Aldrich
520918
Hydroquinone
Sigma Aldrich
H17902
Silver Nitrate
Sigma Aldrich
209139
toxic
Sodium Borohydride
Sigma Aldrich
480886
Hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB)
Sigma Aldrich
H5882
Acute Tox. (oral). In this study we tested three different batches of CTAB (H5882) from Sigma Aldrich. Two of them were marked as made in China while one as made in India. In our experience only the batches marked as made in China were effective for the preparation of AuNR
Picciolini, S., Mehn, D., Ojea-Jiménez, I., Gramatica, F., Morasso, C. Hydroquinone Based Synthesis of Gold Nanorods. J. Vis. Exp. (114), e54319, doi:10.3791/54319 (2016).