Radiation synthesis of chitosan stabilized gold nanoparticles comparison between e− beam and γ irradiation

•This paper underlines the potential of ionizing radiations in the synthesis of AuNps.•The size of the nanoparticles, and their stability are controlled by the ratio [GLA]/[Au(III)]•This paper compares results obtained with e− beam and γ irradiation for the AuNps synthesis.•This paper points the influence of dose rate on the size of preformed Au clusters.

Gold nanoparticles were synthesized via radiolytic reduction of Au(III) salts induced by e− beam or γ-irradiation, using chitosan as a stabilizer. The effect of irradiation dose, chitosan concentration and the conditioning of HAuCl4–chitosan solutions were studied. UV–visible absorption measurements reveal that the size of Au clusters formed immediately after irradiation is correlated with the extent of chitosan scission chain of chitosan and fall with the increase of dose absorbed. This effect is more pronounced with solution conditioned under Argon (Ar). Au clusters coalesce to form stable nanoparticles after two weeks.