Microfluidic-Generated Seeds for Gold Nanotriangle Synthesis in Three or Two Steps

Nanoparticle synthesis has drawn great attention in the last decades. The study of crystal growth mechanisms and optimization of the existing methods lead to the increasing accessibility of nanomaterials, such as gold nanotriangles which have great potential in the fields of plasmonics and catalysis. To form such structures, a careful balance of reaction parameters has to be maintained. Herein, a novel synthesis of gold nanotriangles from seeds derived with a micromixer, which provides a highly efficient mixing and simple parameter control is reported. The impact of the implemented reactor on the primary seed characteristics is investigated. The following growth steps are studied to reveal the phenomena affecting the shape yield. The use of microfluidic seeds led to the formation of well-defined triangles with a narrower size distribution compared to the entirely conventional batch synthesis. A shortened two-step procedure for the formation of triangles directly from primary seeds, granting an express but robust synthesis is further described. Moreover, the need for a thorough study of seed crystallinity depending on the synthesis conditions, which – together with additional parameter optimization – will bring a new perspective to the use of micromixers which are promising for scaling up nanomaterial production is highlighted.