Elemental Sulfur as a Reactive Medium for Gold Nanoparticles and Nanocomposite Materials

Abstract

Get yellow: The utilization of elemental sulfur as an unconventional medium for the synthesis and stabilization of colloidal gold is reported. In this system, sulfur serves multiple functions to sulfurate PPh3, solubilize and reduce AuI precursors into Au nanoparticles (NPs; see picture). Direct vulcanization of sulfur dispersions of AuNPs afforded cross-linked nanocomposites as confirmed by TEM, XRD, XPS, and Raman spectroscopy. Detailed facts of importance to specialist readers are published as ”Supporting Information”. Such documents are peer-reviewed, but not copy-edited or typeset. They are made available as submitted by the authors. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.