title: The importance of the CTAB surfactant on the colloidal seed-mediated synthesis of gold nanorods.
abstract: Gold nanorods were synthesized by the colloidal seed-mediated, surfactant-assisted approach [Gou et al., Chem. Mater. 2005, 17, 3668-3672] using CTAB (hexadecylcetyltrimethylammonium bromide) obtained from ten different suppliers. The yield of gold nanorods depended strongly on the CTAB used: with the same recipe, three of the CTABs did not yield nanorods and produced only spherical gold particles, whereas the other CTABs yielded nanorods with nearly 100% yield. These results suggest that an impurity in the CTAB is very important for nanorod formation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Texas Materials Institute, Center for Nano and Molecular Science and Technology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712-1062, USA.
authors.forename: Danielle K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Brian A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Korgel
mesh_terms: D000077286:Cetrimonium; D002593:Cetrimonium Compounds / Q000737:chemistry*; D004340:Drug Contamination; D017979:Gold Colloid; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry / Q000648:ultrastructure; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; D036103:Nanotechnology; D043942:Nanotubes / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D012996:Solutions; D013053:Spectrophotometry; D013501:Surface-Active Agents / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D002593:Cetrimonium Compounds; D017979:Gold Colloid; D012996:Solutions; D013501:Surface-Active Agents; D000077286:Cetrimonium