11.07.2015 Views

Copyright 2004 by Marcel Dekker, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Copyright 2004 by Marcel Dekker, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Copyright 2004 by Marcel Dekker, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

species will attack any dissolved substances. To achieve complete reduction ofthe metal ions in solution, an alcohol is added to scavenge the OH radicals.This produces organic radicals, which act as reductants. In most cases, it isuseful to eliminate the primary radicals from water radiolysis (i.e., only produceorganic radicals). This can be achieved <strong>by</strong> irradiating under an atmosphereof nitrous oxide. The hydrated electrons are scavenged <strong>by</strong> N 2 O toproduce OH radicals, which then react with the alcohol.Radiation chemistry can be used to produce small (2 nm) noble metalparticles in solution [21], but for our purposes, its most important use is togrow existing nanoparticles into larger ones [22]. In a typical growth experiment,a solution containing Au seed particles, KAu(CN) 2 , methanol, andN 2 O is g-irradiated, producing 1-hydroxymethyl radicals. These radicalscannot reduce Au–I complexes in solution, due to the large free energy offormation of a free Au atom; however, they can react with the Au particles <strong>by</strong>electron transfer. Once the colloidal particles have accumulated enough electrons,they are able to reduce Au(CN) 2 directly onto their surface [23].Irradiation is carried out until all of the Au–I complex is reduced, and thefinal size of the particles is simply determined <strong>by</strong> the amount of gold complexused [21,22]. The particles produced <strong>by</strong> this technique have an extremelynarrow size distribution (

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!