Seed-mediated successive growth of gold particles accomplished by UV irradiation: a photochemical approach for size-controlled synthesis

Preparation of monodispersed metal nanoparticles of different size has enor mous importance in nanotechnology. Currently, the size controlled synthesis of nanoparticles is carried out either by using the capping property of a stabilizer that restrict the particle growth at the intermediate stage or b y exploiting the variable size of the water pool of a reverse micelle as te mplate. We have reported here a powerful and general method to prepare gold nanoparticles of controlled size by through UV irradiation technique. Firs t small particles are prepared and then they are used as seed to prepare bi gger particles by photoactivation technique. Metal particles of gold of dif ferent size (similar to 20-80 nm) have been synthesized by this method. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.