Solution ionic strength effect on gold nanoparticle solution color transition.

Unmodified and modified gold nanoparticles are proposed as sensors using the red to blue transition as an indicator. This work indicates that ionic content is an important variable to track in analytical samples and during the sensor fabrication processes. Mono and multivalent salts where the titrants for a standard gold nanoparticle solution. Multivalent cation salt titrants exhibited a greater sensitivity to color change than monovalent cation salts. The data suggest that specific surface adsorption is the predominant mechanism for the red to blue color change not aggregation. The 3-7nm Debye length for divalent cations versus the 0.5-1.5nm for monovalent cations indicates surface electrodynamic resonance effects are an important factor in the observed color changes.