Sustainable synthesis of gold nanorods assisted by cubic-shaped seeds as intermediate particles

We demonstrate a simple and novel approach for continuously production of gold nanorods via seed-mediated technique. By utilizing a critical shape of seeds (e.g. cubic-shaped particle) which is prepared by incubation at 35 °C, we found that this specific seed can effectively transform into nanorods. The advantage of this synthesis route can offers stable seeds to generate nanorods, even undergo long-term aging process, and would significantly reduce the amount and frequency use of hazardous material (e.g. NaBH4) for preparing the fresh seed solution. Reliability for scalable and repeatable production of this method are discussed.