Electrochemical Behaviors of Single Gold Nanoparticles

In this paper, the electrochemical behaviors of a single gold nanoparticle attached on a nanometer sized electrode have been studied. The single nanoparticle was characterized by using electrochemical methods. Since there is only one nanoparticle on the electrode, unarguable information for that sized particle could be obtained. Our preliminary results show that it becomes more difficult to oxidize gold nanoparticle or reduce gold nanoparticle oxide as the radius of the particle becomes smaller. Also, the peak potential of the reduction of gold nanoparticle oxide is proportional to the reciprocal of the radius of the particle.