The increasing prevalence of functionalized nanomaterials in a variety of applications will inevitably lead to an increase in nanomaterial soil and groundwater contamination. It has been shown that the size, shape, and surface chemistry of functionalized NPs strongly influence their interactions with biological and environmental systems, however, the influence of these properties on NP fate and transport in soil is not well-understood. Gold nanoparticles are excellent model probes to assess the behavior of NPs in soils, because their size, shape, and surface chemistry can be exquisitely controlled, and their progress through soils can be closely monitored. We prepared gold nanorods with different aspect ratios and surface chemistries using a poly-electrolyte layer-by-layer coating strategy, and investigated how their properties influences their rate of transport through soil. We found that AuNRs with positive surface charge were strongly retained by soil, while negatively-charged AuNRs were quickly eluted from the soil columns.

Effect of shape and surface chemistry on gold nanorod transport in residential and agricultural soil columns

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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