Rotational dynamics of gold nanoparticle chains in water solution

In this work we report a study on the determination of the shape of aggregated gold colloids, obtained by adding pyridine to a solution of pure gold nanoparticles prepared by laser ablation in water studying their dynamic behavior. We have simultaneously measured the translational and rotational diffusion coefficients of dilute solutions of the as-prepared and aggregated gold nanoparticles by polarized and depolarized dynamic light scattering. An increase of the hydrodynamic radius from 26 to 135 nm and a decrease of the rotational diffusion coefficient of two order of magnitude are measured with increasing the pyridine concentration, both correlated to the aggregate formation. The dynamic properties of nanoaggregates have been interpreted by applying a model which allows a direct evaluation of translation and rotational diffusion coefficients of a chain of spherical particles by changing the number and the relative position of each nanoparticle in the aggregate. The comparison between experimental and calculated values indicates that an aggregation of less than ten isolated nanoparticles produces mainly rod-like chains, while aggregate morphology approaches the fractal-like configuration with increasing aggregation number.