Bone and Joint Institute

The formation of gold nanoparticles in photopolymerized networks

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2016

Journal

Canadian Journal of Chemistry

Volume

94

Issue

5

First Page

476

Last Page

481

URL with Digital Object Identifier

10.1139/cjc-2015-0114

Abstract

© 2016 Published by NRC Research Press. Photopolymer networks containing a phosphonium polyelectrolyte were used as scaffolds for the synthesis of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). Chloride anions electrostatically bound to the phosphonium salt were exchanged with AuCl4- and then reduced with NaBH4 to form AuNPs. The stiffness of the photopolymer matrix had a pronounced effect on the concentration of AuNPs formed within the material, where softer, more swellable networks provided greater anion-exchange sites and therefore more AuNP formation. Numerous loading/reduction cycles with AuCl4 and NaBH4 increased the concentration of AuNPs upon each cycling step without significantly changing AuNP size, thus providing a means to control AuNP concentration within the material. SEM and TEM analysis revealed particles sizes ranging from 10 to 30 nm with significant microscale heterogeneity likely arising from phase separation of the phosphonium polyelectrolyte from the photopolymer matrix followed by AuNP synthesis within those regions. We also demonstrate how this methodology can be applied to patterned photopolymer networks, providing the means to explore this approach for photolithographic applications.

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