A microemulsion method for preparation of thiol-functionalized gold nanoparticles

A new microemulsion method using tetraoctylammonium bromide as a cationic surfactant has been formulated to fabricate thiol-functionalized gold nanoparticles. The nanoparticles were compared with those synthesized by the multistep Brust two-phase method. The nanoparticle sizes and size distributions fabricated by the two methods were characterized by UV-vis absorbance spectroscopy and transmittance electron microscopy. The simple microemulsion method produced the same results as those obtained by the Brust method. (C) 2017 Chinese Society of Particuology and Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.