Fundamental spectroscopic studies of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) using simple synthetic protocols with highly reproducible AuNP size distributions has facilitated their successful use in applied studies of catalysis, energy storage, and cancer treatment. However, our understanding of nanoparticle (NP) nucleation - which largely controls the size, shape, and desired properties of the NP � is still in the nascent stages. Few studies of NP nucleation mechanisms are reported in the literature and these papers cite the lack of experimental techniques to directly measure NP nucleation, thereby resulting in contradictory mechanisms being published in the literature. Fast (10-9s) and ultrafast (=10-12s) spectroscopic techniques utilize pulsed lasers to obtain light scattering information on timescales sufficient for studying NP nucleation that occurs within the first micro- to milliseconds of synthesis. We report what we believe is the first demonstration of using a 10Hz, pulsed Nd:YAG laser with a 10 nanosecond pulse width to measure particle size distributions at 50 nanosecond time intervals during the nucleation period of gold nanoparticles via the citrate-reduction method.

Nanosecond time-resolved studies of gold nanoparticle nucleation

247th National Meeting (2014)

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