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Updated: May 14, 2026

Synthesis, Assembly, and Characterization of Monolayer Protected Gold Nanoparticle Films for Protein Monolayer Electrochemistry
Published on: October 4, 2011
Characterization of films of weak polyelectrolytes incorporated with poly(vinyl-pyrrolidone)-stabilized gold
T M Popiolski1, N Dal'Acqua, A C R Faria
1Centro de Ciências Exatas e Tecnologia, Universidade de Caxias do Sul, Caxias do Sul--RS, 95070-560, Brazil.
Abstract:
The incorporation process of gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) into self-assembled films was obtained using the layer-by-layer (LbL) technique where two weak polyelectrolytes, i.e., poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH) as polycation and poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) as polyanion, were sequentially adsorbed. To evaluate this process, the films of PAH and PAA were immersed in gold solutions containing different sizes of Au NPs (6 nm and 10 nm) stabilized with poly(vinyl-pyrrolidone) (PVP) before and after treatment with a 0.1 mol L(-1) solution of hydrochloric acid. The systems were analyzed using a multi-method approach involving UV-Visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis), X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force (AFM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results showed that the self-assembled polyelectrolyte films that were not treated by acid showed greater incorporation and better distribution of Au NPs.

