Fluidic Manufacture of Star-Shaped Gold Nanoparticles

Alessandro Silvestri; Luigi Lay; Rinaldo Psaro; Laura Polito; Claudio Evangelisti

doi:10.1002/chem.201701617

Fluidic Manufacture of Star-Shaped Gold Nanoparticles

Chemistry. 2017 Jul 21;23(41):9732-9735. doi: 10.1002/chem.201701617. Epub 2017 Jul 3.

Authors

Alessandro Silvestri^{1

2

3}, Luigi Lay^{2

4}, Rinaldo Psaro¹, Laura Polito¹, Claudio Evangelisti¹

Affiliations

¹ Nanotechnology Lab., National Council of the Research, CNR-ISTM, Via G. Fantoli 16/15, 20138, Milan, Italy.
² Department of Chemistry, University of Milan, Via C. Golgi 19, 20133, Milan, Italy.
³ Present address: Department of Biomaterials, Max-Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Potsdam-Golm, 14476, Germany.
⁴ CRC Materiali Polimerici (LaMPo), University of Milan, Via C. Golgi 19, 20133, Milan, Italy.

PMID: 28589664
DOI: 10.1002/chem.201701617

Abstract

Star-shaped gold nanoparticles (StarAuNPs) are extremely attractive nanomaterials, characterized by localized surface plasmon resonance which could be potentially employed in a large number of applications. However, the lack of a reliable and reproducible synthetic protocols for the production of StarAuNPs is the major limitation to their spreading. For the first time, here we present a robust protocol to manufacture reproducible StarAuNPs by exploiting a fluidic approach. Star-shaped AuNPs have been synthesized by means of a seed-less protocol, employing ascorbic acid as reducing agent at room temperature. Moreover, the versatility of the bench-top microfluidic protocol has been exploited to afford hydrophilic, hydrophobic and solid-supported engineered StarAuNPs, by avoiding intermediate NP purifications.

Keywords: flow techniques; functionalization; gold; nanoparticles; star-shaped.