Non-equilibrium dynamic control of gold nanoparticle and hyper-branched nanogold assemblies

A flow system capable of dynamically controlling the synthesis of inorganic nanomaterials in real time switching between different conditions is presented whereby the combination of reactor engineering, ligand design and the employment of two in-line analytical techniques enables the synthesis and rapid characterisation of gold nanoparticles. Furthermore, it has been possible to discover a new type of hyper-branched nanogold-based material directly based on the optical feedback from UV-Vis, without stopping the process and the nanoparticles have been characterised using TEM.