Aqueous-organic phase transfer of gold nanoparticles and gold nanorods using an ionic liquid.

The water-immiscible ionic liquid, [C4MIM][PF6], is a solvent medium that allows complete transfer of gold nanoparticles from an aqueous phase into an organic phase. Both spherical and rod-shaped gold nanoparticles are efficiently transferred from an aqueous solution into the organic phase without requiring the use of thiols. The sizes and shapes of the gold nanoparticles were preserved during the phase-transfer process when a surfactant was added to the ionic liquid. This process offers a simple approach for obtaining solutions of differently sized and shaped gold nanoparticles in ionic liquids.