This work presents a mechanistic understanding of the synthesis of small (<3 nm) gold nanoparticles in a nontoxic, eco-friendly, and biodegradable eutectic mixture of choline chloride and urea (reline) without the addition of external reducing or stabilization agents. Reline acts as a reducing agent by releasing ammonia (via urea hydrolysis), forming gold nanoparticles even at trace ammonia concentration levels. Reline also affects the speciation of the gold precursor forming gold chloro-complexes, stabilizing Au+ species, leading to an easier reduction and avoiding the otherwise fast disproportionation reaction. Such a capability is however lost in the presence of large amounts of water, where water replaces the chloride ligands in the precursor speciation. In addition, reline acts as a weak stabilizing agent, leading to small particles (<3 nm) and narrow distributions although agglomerates quickly form. Such properties are maintained in the presence of water, indicating that it is linked to the urea stabilization rather than the hydrogen-bonding network. This work has important implications in the field of green synthesis of nanoparticles with small sizes, especially for biomedical and health care applications, due to the nontoxic nature of the components of deep eutectic solvents in contrast to the conventional routes.
© 2023 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.