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Wednesday, 29th April 2009 (1146 views)

Encasing gold nanoparticles in carbon nanoshells can improve the stability of the precious metal, researchers have suggested.

According to Nanowerk News, scientists in the US have developed a new method that enables the gold to be encapsulated in carbon, which can boost the functionality of the nanoparticles.

"We have utilised surface oxidised gold nanoparticles as catalysts for the growth of the carbon shells with well-controlled thickness employing a chemical vapour deposition process," Nitin Chopra of the University of Alabama told the news source.

This method, he noted, can produce an "addressable" amount of the nanoparticles within hours, an improvement on previous techniques, which involved dispersing gold onto a carbon transmission electron microscope grid.

Elsewhere in the nanotechnology sector, a team of scientists at Purdue University have used gold to produce nanoscale probes that can locate tumours within the human body.

According to the news source, the metal acts as a 'string' that links iron oxide particles together.

 

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