High conversion of HAuCl4 into gold nanorods: A re-seeding approach

Gold nanorods with varying aspect ratios have been utilized in recent years for a wide range of applications including vaccines, surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) substrates, and as medicinal therapeutic agents. The surfactant-directed seed mediated approach is an aqueous based protocol that produces monodisperse nanorods with controlled aspect ratios. However, an inherent problem with this approach is poor efficiency of gold conversion from HAuCl4 into nanorods. In fact only ∼15% of gold is converted, motivating the need for alternate synthetic protocols in order to make the process more scalable and efficient as gold nanorods progress toward commercial applications. In the current study, we have significantly improved this conversion by growing rods in several iterations of supernatant solutions that were previously discarded as waste. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) data indicates ∼14% gold conversion per nanorod solution with a total recovery of ∼75%. Gold nanorods prepared in consecutive supernatant solutions generally have slightly increased aspect ratios and maintain stability and monodispersity as measured by UV-vis and TEM. The increased nanorod yield minimizes gold waste and results in a greener synthetic approach.