title: Effect of the alkyl chain length of secondary amines on the phase transfer of gold nanoparticles from water to toluene.
abstract: In the present paper we describe a phase transfer of aqueous synthesized gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) from water to toluene using secondary amines: dioctylamine, didodecylamine, and dioctadecylamine. The effect of the hydrocarbon chain length and amount of amines on the transfer efficiency were investigated in the case of nanoparticles (NPs) with three different sizes: 5, 9, and 13 nm. Aqueous colloids were precisely characterized before the transfer process using UV-vis spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering (DLS), small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Nanoparticles were next transferred to toluene and characterized using UV-vis and DLS techniques. It was found that dioctadecylamine provides the most effective transfer of nanoparticles. No time-dependent changes in the NP size were observed after 12 days, showing that the dioctadecylamine-stabilized nanoparticles dispersed in toluene were stable. This indicates that long hydrocarbon chains of dioctadecylamine exhibit sufficiently hydrophobic properties of nanoparticles and consequently their good dispersibility in nonpolar solvent.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Technology and Chemistry and ‡Department of Physical Chemistry of Solutions, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Lodz , Pomorska 163, 90-236 Lodz, Poland.
authors.forename: Katarzyna
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Soliwoda
authors.forename: Emilia
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Tomaszewska
authors.forename: Beata
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Tkacz-Szczesna
authors.forename: Ewelina
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mackiewicz
authors.forename: Marcin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rosowski
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bald
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Blanck
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schmutz
authors.forename: Jiří
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Novák
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Schreiber
authors.forename: Grzegorz
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Celichowski
authors.forename: Jaroslaw
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Grobelny