Shape separation of gold nanorods using centrifugation.
We demonstrate the use of centrifugation for efficient separation of colloidal gold nanorods from a mixture of nanorods and nanospheres. We elucidate the hydrodynamic behavior of nanoparticles of various shapes and illustrate that the shape-dependent drag causes particles to have shape-dependent sedimentation behavior. During centrifugation, nanoparticles undergo Brownian motion under an external field and move with different sedimentation velocities dictated by their Svedberg coefficients. This effects a separation of particles of different shape and size. Our theoretical analysis and experiments demonstrate the viability of using centrifugation to shape-separate a mixture of colloidal particles.
Sharma
Vivek
V
School of Polymer Textile and Fiber Engineering, Center for Advanced Research on Optical Microscopy, and School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA.
Park
Kyoungweon
K
Srinivasarao
Mohan
M
D002498:Centrifugation / Q000379:methods*; D003102:Colloids / Q000737:chemistry; D006046:Gold; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles; D009038:Motion; D053758:Nanoparticles
D003102:Colloids; D006046:Gold