Abstract
Abstract Gold nanomaterials have diverse applications ranging from healthcare and nanomedicine to analytical sciences and catalysis. Microfluidic and millifluidic reactors offer multiple advantages for their synthesis and manufacturing, including controlled or fast mixing, accurate reaction time control and excellent heat transfer. These advantages are demonstrated by reviewing gold nanoparticle synthesis strategies in flow devices. However, there are still challenges to be resolved, such as reactor fouling, particularly if robust manufacturing processes are to be developed to achieve the desired targets in terms of nanoparticle size, size distribution, surface properties, process throughput and robustness. Solutions to these challenges are more effective through a coordinated approach from chemists, engineers and physicists, which has at its core a qualitative and quantitative understanding of the synthesis processes and reactor operation. This is important as nanoparticle synthesis is complex, encompassing multiple phenomena interacting with each other, often taking place at short timescales. The proposed methodology for the development of reactors and processes is generic and contains various interconnected considerations. It aims to be a starting point towards rigorous design procedures for the robust and reproducible continuous flow synthesis of gold nanoparticles. Graphical Abstract:
Highlights
4.1.1 Applications of gold nanoparticlesGold nanomaterials have been a topic of intense investigation in the last few decades owing to their unique optical, chemical, biological and catalytic properties
Unlike many chemical synthesis processes that only benefit from the improved residence time distribution (RTD), mixing efficiency, heat transfer and control afforded by milli- and microfluidic devices, the synthesis of particles in flow systems is much more complex due to the potential for reactor surface interactions
Manufacturing of Au NPs is based on batch processes, which are similar to the ones used for their lab synthesis
Summary
Gold nanomaterials have been a topic of intense investigation in the last few decades owing to their unique optical, chemical, biological and catalytic properties This is due to some attractive physical characteristics, which are determined by physical parameters such as particle size, morphology, surface, crystallinity and composition. If analyte molecules bind to Au NPs either directly or via some linker ligands, the local refractive index changes and the plasmon absorption shifts to longer wavelengths The former results in colour change, which makes NPs attractive for colorimetric sensors, while the latter can be detected both by LSPR extinction or the angle of reflected light and are exploited in other plasmonic sensors [5, 10]. Selectivity to desired products can increase or decrease with nanoparticle size, depending on the particular reaction [37, 38]
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