Overview
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Read the articleAUTHORS
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Olivier PLUCHERY: Lecturer at Pierre et Marie Curie University (Paris)
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Marie CARRIERE: Research engineer at CEA-Saclay
INTRODUCTION
Gold nanoparticles are assemblies of forty to thirty million gold atoms, typically between 1 and 100 nm in size. Over the past twenty years or so, they have attracted considerable interest from the scientific community thanks to newly discovered or better-understood properties. This article reviews these properties in the fields of catalysis, optics with plasmon resonance, electronics, biology and medicine. The main methods for preparing gold nanoparticles are also considered. Their toxicity is also discussed.
Gold nanoparticles are assemblies from forty atoms up to thirty millions of gold atoms with size ranging from 1 to 100 nm. For twenty years or so, they are the focus of intense research activity because of either newly discovered or better understood properties. This article reviews these properties in catalysis, optics (plasmonics), nanoelectronics, biology and medicine. The main preparation methods are also presented and their toxicity is discussed.
gold nanoparticles, plasmon, catalysis, thermotherapy, toxicity, nanoelectronics
gold nanoparticles, plasmon, catalysis, thermotherapy, toxicity, nanoelectronics
Gold has fascinated mankind for millennia. This fascination is not simply the result of ancestral customs or social conventions. Scientific knowledge provides some explanation for this attraction. Gold is the best-known of the metals found in its native state, in the form of nuggets for example (along with silver, copper and platinum). The other metals, on the other hand, are mined in their oxidized form, and the corresponding reduction requires knowledge of metallurgy that dates back to the Bronze Age (around 2,000 BC) and has been perfected throughout human history. Gold is the only metal, along with copper, that is not grey. And because it is chemically stable (unalterable), it retains its properties indefinitely. That's why it's called a noble metal. It's easy to see why gold has always been the ideal metal for jewelry. Even today, of the 2,500 or 3,000 tonnes of gold mined every year –, to which must be added several hundred tonnes a year brought back onto the market in recent years – gold's main use remains in jewelry (2,400 tonnes), followed by electronics and electrical contacts (around 450 tonnes) and dentistry (70 tonnes). However, this age-old fascination with gold has been winning over scientists for the last twenty years, albeit for almost diametrically opposed reasons. This metal, so inert that chemists had no interest...
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Gold nanoparticles
Bibliography
Websites
Or-Nano, CNRS Research Group
World Gold Council, official website
Gold Bulletin, the Journal of Gold Science, Technology and Applications (free access)
Events
International congress entitled "Gold" dealing with scientific research and applications of gold. The congress is held every 3 years. Gold 2009 took place in July 2009 in Heidelberg (Germany). Announcement of the congress relayed on http://www.gold.org .
Directory
Organizations – Federations – Associations (non-exhaustive list)
The Or-Nano research group's website contains a directory of French researchers from public institutions working on gold nanoparticles. See http://www.or-nano.org .
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