Electrochemical stability of citrate-capped gold nanoparticles electrostatically assembled on amine-modified glassy carbon

The stability of citrate-capped gold nanoparticles assembled on covalently attached ethylenediamine films on glassy carbon was probed using cyclic voltammetry and scanning electron microscopy. The accessible potential windows in 0.01 M HClO4 and phosphate buffer (pH 7.4) were found to be very similar to those for re-constructed polycrystalline bulk gold. At the nanoparticle electrodes, gold is dissolved at high positive potentials and re-deposited at lower potentials resulting in the formation of fewer, larger particles. The electrografted amine layer does not limit the stability range and citrate-capping groups do not stabilise the nanoparticles to oxidation. In addition to the structural stability of the nanoparticle electrodes, preliminary investigations of the stability of their activity for voltammetric analyses were also undertaken. Repeated voltammetric reduction of H2O2 at the nanoparticle electrodes showed excellent reproducibility indicating that the nanoparticle surface maintained a constant activity for the redox process. In contrast, a re-constructed polycrystalline bulk gold electrode did not exhibit a stable response under the same conditions.