www.goldbulletin.org
NanoTech GOLD news ISSUE No. 7 WINTER 2008
Thermally
stable gold Exhibit with World
nanoparticles Gold Council at
Researchers from the Department of Chemistry,
Nanotech 2009
Carnegie Mellon University, Pennsylvania,
Following our presence at Nanotech 2008,
have invented a new method for the synthesis
World Gold Council would like to invite
robust polymer supported gold nanoparticles
based on surface-initiated atom transfer radical
organisations from both industry and
polymerization technique of a monomer (n-butyl academia to exhibit with us at next year’s
acrylate) and a cross-linker (ethylene glycol Nanotech 2009 event.
dimethacrylate), which significantly enhanced the
Nanotech 2009 (www.nsti.org/Nanotech2009) is the
stability of the gold nanoparticles. They claimed world’s largest and most anticipated annual
that the composite could be useful in applications, nanotechnology conference and exhibition. Now in its
where increased tolerance to high temperature 12th year, over 5,000 attendees and 250 exhibitors are
is essential. expected in Houston next May for this event. World Gold
Council will again display prototype and commercial
J. AM. CHEM. SOC. 2008, 130, 12852–12853 applications for gold-related nanotechnology. The type
For further information contact: Krzysztof of technologies we are interested to display include
Matyjaszewski (Email: km3b@andrew.cmu.edu). biomedical sensors, advanced electronic applications,
inks and pastes, colorants, drug delivery applications,
imaging applications, catalysts, nanoparticulate
Contrast agents in coatings and other interesting uses for gold
nanoparticles. The costs of exhibiting will be met by
confocal microscopy World Gold Council. If you would like to join with us,
please email industry@gold.org c
Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM)
is a modern high-resolution optical technique
which provides detailed images of tissue structure
with high spatial resolution. For the improvement
of imaging depth and image quality the
CLSM requires the use of contrast agents.
The enhancement of CLSM image contrast was
observed through the use of gold nanospheres
according to scientists from Cranfield University,
UK and Saratov State University, Russia.
Their findings are recently published in Laser
Physics Letters, DOI 10.1002/lapl.200810091
(WILEY Inter Science).
Further information contact: A. Lemelle, Cranfield
University, Cranfield, MK43 0AL, UK,
Email: a.lemelle.s06@cranfield.ac.uk
WORLD GOLD COUNCIL
Gold Bulletin Volume 41 No 4 2008 NTGN11
www.goldbulletin.org
Developments in
Plenary lecture gold nanoparticles
at GOLD2009
Nanotechnology, as it relates to gold, will be one of the
key themes of next year’s GOLD2009 conference. The
Organising Committee of the conference are delighted to
announce that Professor Paul Mulvaney, ARC Federation
Fellow at the School of Chemistry, University of Melbourne,
will be delivering the Nanotechnology Plenary Lecture
at GOLD2009. Professor Mulvaney will talk on ‘Single
Gold Nanocrystal Spectroscopy - Steps towards Active
Plasmonics’. The Call for Papers for the conference is
open until January 15th. Full details on abstract
submission can be found at www.gold2009.org c
Recent developments in gold nanotechnology will be the focus at GOLD2009
Cancer treatment
MIT researchers are working on ways to use gold
nanorods to fight cancer, specifically ways to
manipulate the nanorods’ surface, which could allow
researchers to design nanorods with specific useful
functions. It is well known that gold nanorods can
Highly sensitive detection absorb infrared light, meaning they can theoretically be
of lead ions activated by infrared laser without damaging
surrounding cells, which do not absorb infrared light.
Scientists from University of Illinois at Urbana–
However, scientists must figure out how to deal with an
Champaign have designed a fast and simple
undesirable organic molecule known as CTAB that coats
colorimetric sensor for on-site and real-time lead ion
the outer surface of gold nanorods. Recent papers by
detection based on gold nanoparticles. The sensor has
the MIT researchers describe how the CTAB influences
a detection limit of 3 nM (nanomolar), which is much
heat dissipation and how to remove the CTAB and
lower than the limit (72 nM) set by U.S. Environmental
replace it with another organic molecule.
Protection Agency for lead ions in drinking water.
In one recent paper, published online (August 12) in the
Advanced materials: 2008, 20, 3263–3267
Journal of Physical Chemistry C, they found that a low
Further information: concentration of the CTAB in the surrounding solution
accelerates heat dissipation. In a second paper,
Prof. Y. Lu, E-mail: yi-lu@uiuc.edu c published online (August 22) in the journal Langmuir,
the team demonstrated how to replace CTAB with a
Purification more useful thiol molecule c
Chemists at Rice University have discovered a novel
method to produce ultra-pure gold nanorods. The
content of high-aspect-ratio gold nanorods produced
by today’s best synthetic methods is only about
20 percent. Prof. Zubarev and graduate student Bishnu
Khanal’s new purification method filters more than
99 percent of impurities from gold nanorods. The
research is available in the September 25, 2008 issue of
the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
J. AM. CHEM. SOC. 2008, 130, 12634–12635
Further information: Prof. Eugene R. Zubarev
Department of Chemistry, Rice University, Houston,
Texas 77005
E-mail: zubarev@rice.edu c Image: Andy Wijaya. Courtesy: Myles Crowley, MIT News Office
Gold Bulletin Volume 41 No 4 2008 NTGN12