A Study on the Splitting of Large Gold Nanoparticles by Addition of Aqueous Ascorbic Acid

• DOI: 10.1166/sam.2021.4019
• Publication Date: 2021-10-30T04:44:16Z
• Authors: HeeJin Noh; Gwang-Bum Im; Taekyung Yu; Suk Ho Bhang

Control of the size and shape of nanoparticles significantly impacts the ability to control their physical and chemical properties. In this paper, we introduce a technique to split large nanoparticles into smaller ones. After the addition of ascorbic acid (AA), 50 nm-sized gold (Au) nanoparticles in the form of polycrystals were split into nanoparticles with sizes of 10 nm. We believe that AA plays a critical role in breaking down the Au particles. Additionally, this technique can be used to synthesize small AuPt bimetallic nanoparticles with a small amount of Pt on their surface showing that this reaction could help in the formation of a variety of small Au-based bimetallic nanoparticles.