Preparation of gold nanoparticle aggregates and their photothermal heating property

This report describes simple synthetic strategies to prepare partially aggregated gold nanoparticles (GNPs) and their ability to produce photothermally-induced heating of an aqueous medium upon exposure to broadband light. The formation of various GNPs and their aggregates were accomplished in the absence of surfactants at room temperature. The morphologies, structures, and absorption properties of these GNPs were carefully characterized. Given that the resulting GNPs possessing strong and wide absorption bands fall in the most intense solar radiation spectrum, the photothermally-induced heating of water was examined in the presence of the GNPs via irradiation with a solar simulator (i.e., 100 mW/cm2; 1-sun condition). Our GNPs exhibited a slightly greater increase in the water temperature (3-4 degrees C) than that of conventional citrate-stabilized GNPs. This superior photothermal heating property of our GNPs directly indicated that the intense and broad absorption band effectively improved the conversion of highly absorbed photon energy into heat.