Parametric Study of Gold Nanoparticles Synthesis under Micro-Continuous Flow Conditions

Mohannad T Aljarrah; Ala'a M Alboull; Mohammad S Alharahsheh; Azad Ashraf; Amith Khandakar

doi:10.3390/molecules27248651

Parametric Study of Gold Nanoparticles Synthesis under Micro-Continuous Flow Conditions

Molecules. 2022 Dec 7;27(24):8651. doi: 10.3390/molecules27248651.

Authors

Mohannad T Aljarrah^{1

2}, Ala'a M Alboull¹, Mohammad S Alharahsheh¹, Azad Ashraf², Amith Khandakar³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid 22110, Jordan.
² Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering Technology, University of Doha for Science and Technology, College of Engineering Technology, Doha P.O. Box 24449, Qatar.
³ Department of Electrical Engineering, College of Engineering, Qatar University, Doha P.O. Box 2713, Qatar.

Abstract

The synthesis of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) using chemical reduction in batch and microreactor methods has been reported. A parametric study of the effect of several parameters on the size of gold nanoparticles was performed in batch synthesis mode using the modified Martin method. The best-obtained conditions were used to synthesize gold nanoparticles using a glass chip microreactor, and the size of the resulting GNPs from both methods was compared. The presence of polyvinyl alcohol (SC) was used as a capping agent, and sodium borohydride (SB) was used as a reducing agent. Several parameters were studied, including HAuCl₄, SC, SB concentrations, the volumetric ratio of SB to gold precursor, pH, temperature, and mixing speed. Various techniques were used to characterize the resulting nanoparticles, including Atomic Absorbance spectroscopy (AAS), Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis), and dynamic light scratching (DLS). Optimum conditions were obtained for the synthesis of gold nanoparticles. Under similar reaction conditions, the microreactor consistently produced smaller nanoparticles in the range of 10.42-11.31 nm with a reaction time of less than 1 min.

Keywords: flow synthesis; gold nanoparticles; micro-reactors.

MeSH terms

Gold / chemistry
Metal Nanoparticles* / chemistry
Plant Extracts / chemistry

Substances

Gold
Plant Extracts

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Qatar National Research Grant: UREP29-205-2-056. The statements made herein are solely the responsibility of the authors.