Gold nanorods (GNR) are very useful tools for imaging, nanomedicine, and cancer therapy, but their synthesis is often tedious and time consuming. Concurrently, surface acoustic waves (SAW) have been shown to enhance the diffusion coefficient, and hence mixing, of chemical reactions by a factor of two. Thus, we hypothesized that a SAW-mediated synthesis could modulate the reaction kinetics to accelerate the formation of GNR or produce novel morphologies. Applying 3W of power at a 50kHz frequency, the SAW-treated synthesis [JJ1] began to change color in about five minutes, whereas the control did not change until ten minutes. Vis-NIR spectrum showed a notable blue-shifted trend—the concentration of SAW-treated particles was 0.657 nM compared to 0.851 nM for the control—suggesting a change in the aspect ratio. STEM images confirmed GNR formation on samples prepared with and without the influence of the SAW, and we noticed a difference in the number of cuboidal particles between the two samples with more of these structures in the SAW treated group.

Controlling gold nanorod synthesis via surface acoustic waves

251st National Meeting (2016)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.