Static and dynamic light scattering method for analysis of gold colloidal growth in aqueous solution

In this work, the kinetics of precipitation, coagulation and growth of Au solid particles in aqueous solutions was examined. In all experiments, the Photon Correlation Spectroscopy in static (SLS) and dynamic (DLS) version was applied. Gold colloids were formed during reduction of gold(III) chloride complex ions using H2O2, C2H5OH and NaHSO3 as reductants. Experiments showed that application of PCS method is not easy for these reacting systems. However, it was found that if proper conditions (e.g. temperature, initial concentrations, preliminary fast mixing of reagents) are applied, this experimental technique can be a useful tool for determination of changes in the rate of change of gold colloid size. As a result of there experiments, we evaluated the sizes of obtained Au colloidal particles in case of H2O2 and C2H5OH used as reductants. They were found to be in the range from 30 to 110 nm, and from 0.3 to 2.5 mu m, respectively.