Enhanced Stability of Gold Colloids Produced by Femtosecond Laser Synthesis in Aqueous Solution of CTAB

Abstract

Femtosecond laser ablation of gold in an aqueous solution of cetyl trimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) is shown to produce nanoparticle suspensions with superior colloidal stability compared to other surfactants, with shelf lives exceeding 2 months even at low concentrations of CTAB, below 1 mM. CTAB also helps control nanoparticle size with mean diameters of 6.3, 5.6, and 4.7 nm obtained in 0.1, 0.5, and 1 mM concentrations of CTAB respectively, compared to 11.9 nm obtained in pure deionized water under same ablation conditions. The size distributions produced with low concentrations of CTAB are comparable to those produced by other surfactants, typically used at high concentrations.

Gold Nanoparticles in Chemical and Biological Sensing

“…UV and laser irradiation are another parameter that can modify particle structure. 89–94 Ultrasonic fields provide an approach to control the reduction rate of AuCl 4 − in aqueous solutions and therefore affect core sizes with the intensity of the ultrasound and the reactor position. 95–100 Control of the particle size can also be provided by radiolysis.…”

Pulsed laser ablation in liquid for micro-/nanostructure generation

“…Metallic particles formed by this way may form metal/metal oxide core/shell structures and even hollow particles by reaction with the liquid molecules. Recently, Liu et al produced metal droplets by using a millisecond pulsed laser to ablate metal targets in liquid media, and the droplets from some metals could react with certain liquid molecules, resulting in hollow nanoparticles due to the nanoscale Kirkendall Effect [57,58].…”

One-Phase Synthesis of Surface Modified Gold Nanoparticles and Generation of SERS Substrate by Seed Growth Method

“…[42][43][44] However, CTAB bilayer binds more tightly to nanorods compared to nanoshperes. 50 Very recently, Fenger et al 51 synthesized CTAB stabilized nanoparticles in a range of sizes (10-56 nm) from 3.0 nm citrate capped gold nanoparticles. Interdigitated bilayers have been previously used to stabilize silver nanoparticles, 45,46 49 reported AuNP synthesis with CTAB by phase transfer method in water and toluene.…”