γ Radiation Mediated Synthesis of Anisotropic MNPs for Potential Biomedical Applications

γ irradiation strategies were developed for the synthesis of gold nanoparticles of different morphologies such nanoplates, nanorods and particles with rectangular, plate like structure. The different shapes could be realized by employing a specific capping agent such as CTAB and then controlling the irradiation conditions. The nanoplates produced had hexagonal and triangular shapes, and their size could be varied from 500 nm to 5 μm by adjusting the concentration of Au³⁺ and capping agent in the solution. Gold nanorods were synthesized by both seed mediated as well as seedless procedures using CTAB. Gold nanoparticles with rectangular, plate like structure could also be produced by a variation of the procedure used for synthesizing nanorods. Gold nanorods and small nanoplates have been used for medical imaging and for therapeutic applications. Various techniques such as TEM, SEM, XRD, selected area electron diffraction, energy dispersive X ray analysis and XPS were used to characterize these nanoparticles. (author)