Quantitative gold nanoparticle analysis methods: A review

Research and development in the area of gold nanoparticles’ (AuNPs) preparation, characterization, and applications are burgeoning in recent years. Many of the techniques and protocols are very mature, but two major concerns are with the mass domestic production and the consumption of AuNP based products. First, how many AuNPs exist in a dispersion? Second, where are the AuNPs after digestion by the environment and how many are there? To answer these two questions, reliable and reproducible methods are needed to analyze the existence and the population of AuNP in samples. This review summarized the most recent chemical and particle quantitative analysis methods that have been used to characterize the concentration (in number of moles of gold per liter) or population (in number of particles per mL) of AuNPs. The methods summarized in this review include, mass spectroscopy, electroanalytical methods, spectroscopic methods, and particle counting methods. These methods may count the number of AuNP directly or analyze the total concentration of element gold in an AuNP dispersion.