Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 12, 2026

A Simple Method for the Size Controlled Synthesis of Stable Oligomeric Clusters of Gold Nanoparticles under Ambient Conditions
Published on: February 5, 2016
Size and shape separation of gold nanoparticles with preparative gel electrophoresis
Xiaoyou Xu1, K Kenneth Caswell, Elizabeth Tucker
1Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Nanocenter, University of South Carolina, 631 Sumter Street, Columbia, SC 29208, USA.
Abstract:
We employed agarose gel preparative electrophoresis to separate gold nanoparticles based on size, shape, and charge. The separating technique was first demonstrated by size separation of 5 nm, 15 nm, and 20 nm spherical gold nanoclusters; and further evidenced through the purification of crude 15 +/- 2.7 nm nanoclusters to nanoclusters that were 15 +/- 0.4 nm. The ability to separate gold nanoparticles by shape was also shown by the purification of a mixture of gold spheres, plates, and long rods.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Two-dimensional Gel Electrophoresis
The first dimension separation uses the isoelectric focusing or IEF technique performed on immobilized pH gradient (IPG) strips that separate proteins according to their isoelectric points.
Biological samples, such as cells...
DNA Agarose Gel Electrophoresis
Gel extraction follows five major steps: running gel electrophoresis to separate fragments, isolating the individual bands, extracting DNA from those bands, and removing the dye and salts from the extracted mixture to obtain pure DNA.
In cloning experiments, both the insert and vector DNA...
SDS-PAGE
A variation of gel electrophoresis, termed polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE), is commonly used for separating proteins according to their molecular size by passing them through a polyacrylamide gel. Because of the varying charges associated with amino acid side chains, PAGE can be used to separate intact proteins...

