title: Hydroquinone Based Synthesis of Gold Nanorods.
abstract: Gold nanorods are an important kind of nanoparticles characterized by peculiar plasmonic properties. Despite their widespread use in nanotechnology, the synthetic methods for the preparation of gold nanorods are still not fully optimized. In this paper we describe a new, highly efficient, two-step protocol based on the use of hydroquinone as a mild reducing agent. Our approach allows the preparation of nanorods with a good control of size and aspect ratio (AR) simply by varying the amount of hexadecyl trimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and silver ions (Ag(+)) present in the "growth solution". By using this method, it is possible to markedly reduce the amount of CTAB, an expensive and cytotoxic reagent, necessary to obtain the elongated shape. Gold nanorods with an aspect ratio of about 3 can be obtained in the presence of just 50 mM of CTAB (versus 100 mM used in the standard protocol based on the use of ascorbic acid), while shorter gold nanorods are obtained using a concentration as low as 10 mM.
authors: Labion - Laboratory of Nanomedicine and Clinical Biophotonics, Fondazione Don Carlo Gnocchi ONLUS (Don Carlo Gnocchi Foundation).
authors: Silvia
authors: S
authors: Picciolini
authors: Institute for Health and Consumer Protection (IHCP), European Commission Joint Research Centre.
authors: Dora
authors: D
authors: Mehn
authors: Institute for Health and Consumer Protection (IHCP), European Commission Joint Research Centre.
authors: Isaac
authors: I
authors: Ojea-Jiménez
authors: Labion - Laboratory of Nanomedicine and Clinical Biophotonics, Fondazione Don Carlo Gnocchi ONLUS (Don Carlo Gnocchi Foundation).
authors: Furio
authors: F
authors: Gramatica
authors: Labion - Laboratory of Nanomedicine and Clinical Biophotonics, Fondazione Don Carlo Gnocchi ONLUS (Don Carlo Gnocchi Foundation); cmorasso@dongnocchi.it.
authors: Carlo
authors: C
authors: Morasso
mesh_terms: D006046:Gold; D006873:Hydroquinones / Q000737:chemistry*; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000379:methods*; D043942:Nanotubes / Q000737:chemistry*; D012834:Silver
chemical_list: D006873:Hydroquinones; D012834:Silver; D006046:Gold