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Tuesday, 4th September 2007 (4831 views)

Tiny gold nanoparticles were used, probably inadvertently, by makers of glass artwork in the past, it has been claimed.

According to website Nanowerk, creators of coloured glass vases in ancient Rome and designers of church windows in the middle ages may have used the properties of metallic gold nanoparticles to create red colouring "without deeper insight".

Nanowerk reveals that the interaction of electromagnetic radiation - light - with nanoparticles results in a collective and coherent undulation of electrons.

It claims that the "shiny" red colour of such artefacts was achieved through the addition of gold dust to the glass melt.

The resulting movement of nanoparticles is coherent and is called a surface plasmon.

Old glass vases and church windows achieve their red colour through the absorption of visible light by gold nanoparticles, which is converted into plasmons.

Gold nanoparticles are could also be used in the cleaning of car exhausts, according to Nanowerk.

 

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