A low cost and open access system for rapid synthesis of large volumes of gold and silver nanoparticles

Emilio I Alarcon,Alex Ross,Marcelo Muñoz,Benjamin H Rotstein,Erik J Suuronen

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-84896-1

Abstract

Rapid synthesis of nanomaterials in scalable quantities is critical for accelerating the discovery and commercial translation of nanoscale-based technologies. The synthesis of metal nanogold and silver in volumes larger than 100 mL is not automatized and might require of the use of harsh conditions that in most cases is detrimental for the production of nanoparticles with reproducible size distributions. In this work, we present the development and optimization of an open-access low-cost NanoParticle Flow Synthesis System (NPFloSS) that allows for the rapid preparation of volumes of up to 1 L of gold and silver nanoparticle aqueous solutions.

Highlights

Rapid synthesis of nanomaterials in scalable quantities is critical for accelerating the discovery and commercial translation of nanoscale-based technologies
The application of nanoparticles has rapidly emerged in a variety of fields spanning from heavy metal ion detection[1,2,3], drug delivery[4], nuclear targeting5, biosensing[6,7], and microscopy contrast enhancement[8] to transfecting agents[9]
We report a low-cost (~ 200 CAD), open access system called the Nanoparticle Flow Synthesis System (NPFloSS) that utilizes LED-UVA light sources to generate a continuous flow of nanoparticles

Summary

Introduction

Rapid synthesis of nanomaterials in scalable quantities is critical for accelerating the discovery and commercial translation of nanoscale-based technologies. A recent approach to preventing fouling can be seen in the work of Monbaliu et al[23], who used a specific, tightly pH controlled gold citrate formulation to allow large scale synthesis in commercial photoreactors. This approach is limited by the significant cost of a commercial photoreactor and the use of one specific capping agent along with sodium ions which can contaminate metal nanoparticles. Tween-20 surfactant is presented as a novel method for anti-fouling in the context of flow nanoparticle synthesis

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion