TY - JOUR A1 - Polte, Jörg A1 - Erler, Robert A1 - Thünemann, Andreas A1 - Sokolov, S. A1 - Ahner, T. T. A1 - Rademann, K. A1 - Emmerling, Franziska A1 - Kraehnert, R. T1 - Nucleation and growth of gold nanoparticles studies via in situ small angle X-ray scattering at millisecond time resolution T2 - ACS nano N2 - Gold nanoparticles (AuNP) were prepared by the homogeneous mixing of continuous flows of an aqueous tetrachloroauric acid solution and a sodium borohydride solution applying a microstructured static mixer. The online characterization and screening of this fast process (~2 s) was enabled by coupling a micromixer operating in continuous-flow mode with a conventional in-house small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) setup. This online characterization technique enables the time-resolved investigation of the growth process of the nanoparticles from an average radius of ca. 0.8 nm to about 2 nm. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of a continuous-flow SAXS setup for time-resolved studies of nanoparticle formation mechanisms that does not require the use of synchrotron facilities. In combination with X-ray absorption near edge structure microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and UV-vis spectroscopy the obtained data allow the deduction of a two-step mechanism of gold nanoparticle formation. The first step is a rapid conversion of the ionic gold precursor into metallic gold nuclei, followed by particle growth via coalescence of smaller entities. Consequently it could be shown that the studied synthesis serves as a model system for growth driven only by coalescence processes. PB - ACS Publ. CY - Washington, DC, USA KW - Nanoparticle formation mechanism KW - SAXS KW - Microstructured static mixer KW - Continuous flow PY - 2010 UR - https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bam/frontdoor/index/index/docId/20940 AN - OPUS4-20940 SN - 1936-0851 VL - 4 IS - 2 SP - 1076 EP - 1082 AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany