Hardness and Elastic Modulus on Six-Fold Symmetry Gold Nanoparticles

Manuel Ramos; Luis Ortiz-Jordan; Abel Hurtado-Macias; Sergio Flores; José T Elizalde-Galindo; Carmen Rocha; Brenda Torres; Maryam Zarei-Chaleshtori; Russell R Chianelli

doi:10.3390/ma6010198

Hardness and Elastic Modulus on Six-Fold Symmetry Gold Nanoparticles

Materials (Basel). 2013 Jan 14;6(1):198-205. doi: 10.3390/ma6010198.

Authors

Manuel Ramos^{1

2}, Luis Ortiz-Jordan³, Abel Hurtado-Macias⁴, Sergio Flores⁵, José T Elizalde-Galindo⁶, Carmen Rocha⁷, Brenda Torres⁸, Maryam Zarei-Chaleshtori⁹, Russell R Chianelli¹⁰

Affiliations

¹ Departmento de Física y Matemáticas, Instituto de Ingenieríay Tecnología, UACJ, Avenida del Charro #450 Nte. Cd. Juárez, Chihuahua, C.P. 32312, Mexico. manuel.ramos@uacj.mx.
² Materials Research and Technology Institute, University of Texas at El Paso, 500 W. University Ave, El Paso TX 79968, USA. manuel.ramos@uacj.mx.
³ Materials Research and Technology Institute, University of Texas at El Paso, 500 W. University Ave, El Paso TX 79968, USA. lortiz161@email.suagm.edu.
⁴ Centro de Investigación en Materiales Avanzados S.C., Laboratorio Nacional de Nanotecnología-Chihuahua Miguel de Cervantes 120, Complejo Industrial Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Apdo. Postal 31109, Mexico. abel.hurtado@cimav.edu.mx.
⁵ Departmento de Física y Matemáticas, Instituto de Ingenieríay Tecnología, UACJ, Avenida del Charro #450 Nte. Cd. Juárez, Chihuahua, C.P. 32312, Mexico. seflores@uacj.mx.
⁶ Departmento de Física y Matemáticas, Instituto de Ingenieríay Tecnología, UACJ, Avenida del Charro #450 Nte. Cd. Juárez, Chihuahua, C.P. 32312, Mexico. jose.elizalde@uacj.mx.
⁷ Materials Research and Technology Institute, University of Texas at El Paso, 500 W. University Ave, El Paso TX 79968, USA. crrocha2@miners.utep.edu.
⁸ Materials Research and Technology Institute, University of Texas at El Paso, 500 W. University Ave, El Paso TX 79968, USA. btorres2@utep.edu.
⁹ Materials Research and Technology Institute, University of Texas at El Paso, 500 W. University Ave, El Paso TX 79968, USA. mzarei@utep.edu.
¹⁰ Materials Research and Technology Institute, University of Texas at El Paso, 500 W. University Ave, El Paso TX 79968, USA. chianell@utep.edu.

Abstract

The chemical synthesis of gold nanoparticles (NP) by using gold (III) chloride trihydrate (HAuCl∙3H₂O) and sodium citrate as a reducing agent in aqueous conditions at 100 °C is presented here. Gold nanoparticles areformed by a galvanic replacement mechanism as described by Lee and Messiel. Morphology of gold-NP was analyzed by way of high-resolution transmission electron microscopy; results indicate a six-fold icosahedral symmetry with an average size distribution of 22 nm. In order to understand the mechanical behaviors, like hardness and elastic moduli, gold-NP were subjected to nanoindentation measurements-obtaining a hardness value of 1.72 GPa and elastic modulus of 100 GPa in a 3-5 nm of displacement at the nanoparticle's surface.

Keywords: HRTEM; gold; hardness; nanoindentation; nanoparticles.