Tuesday, 23rd September 2008 (315 views)

Scientists at Rice University have developed a new method of producing "ultra-pure" gold nanorods.

The wand-like structures, made up of gold nanoparticles, are used in laboratories globally for a range of fields including medicine and electronics.

"A nanoparticle's shape plays a crucial role in determining many of its physical and chemical properties," explained lead researcher Eugene Zubarey.

When nanorods are the wrong shape, it is a "tremendous impediment" to using them successfully, he added.

Mr Zubarey and a graduate student created a new method for purifying the microscopic gold rods, meaning that 99 per cent of impurities were filtered out and they retained their optimal stucture.

Their work will be published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society later this month.

Gold nanorods can be used to deliver drugs for treatment of cancer, which was the subject of a recent study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

 

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