Some Aspects of Seedless Synthesis of Gold Nanorods

Seedless synthesis of gold nanorods with the use of sodium borohydride and hydroquinone as reductants of metal ions has been systematically studied. The effect of reaction system composition on the morphology and optical characteristics of the formed particles has been determined. It has been found that the position of the band of the longitudinal surface plasmon resonance of the nanorods varies nonmonotonically with variations in the concentration of hydroquinone or silver nitrate. The seedless synthesis has been shown to yield high-quality gold nanorods, with the tunable position of their longitudinal surface plasmon resonance in a wide spectral range (from 700 to ~1050 nm). Therewith, the conversion of metal ions is no lower than 78 wt %.