Electrophoretic and Electrolytic Deposition of Gold Nanoparticles on a Graphite Carbon Plate

Nobel metal particles with nanometer size have attracted keen interest because of, for example, their high catalytic activity to be applied for industrial applications. In this study, nano-sized gold particles were deposited onto a graphite carbon plate by two approaches: 1) electrophoresis of colloidal gold nanoparticles, 2) electrolysis of chlorauric acid. For former case, commercially-available gold nanoparticle and anionic mercapto ligand-stabilized gold nanoparticles, synthesized by citric acid reduction of chlorauric acid, were used. Size and morphology of the gold particles deposited were characterized by scanning electron microscopy. Electrolytic deposition resulted in larger gold particles around tens to hundreds nm in size. Electrophoretic deposition accomplished particle sizes smaller than 15 nm, which basically reflected the size of colloidal gold particles used.