Surfactant stabilized gold nanomaterials for environmental sensing applications – A review

Surfactant stabilized Gold (Au) nanomaterials (NMs) have been documented extensively in recent years for numerous sensing applications in the academic literature. Despite the crucial role these surfactants play in the sensing applications, the comprehensive reviews that highlights the fundamentals associated with these assemblies and impact of these surfactants on the properties and sensing mechanisms are still quite scare. This review is an attempt in organizing the vast literature associated with this domain by providing critical insights into the fundamentals, preparation methodologies and sensing mechanisms of these surfactant stabilized Au NMs. For the simplification, the surfactants are divided into the typical and advanced surfactants and the Au NMs are classified into Au nanoparticles (NPs) and Au nanoclusters (NCs) depending upon the complexity in structure and size of the NMs respectively. The preparative methodologies are also elaborated for enhancing the understanding of the readers regarding such assemblies. The case studies regarding surfactant stabilized Au NMs were further divided into colorimetric sensors, surface plasmonic resonance (SPR) based sensors, luminescence-based sensors, and electrochemical/electrical sensors depending upon the property utilized by the sensor for the sensing of an analyte. Future perspectives are also discussed in detail for the researchers looking for further progress in that particular research domain. [Display omitted] •Highlighting the fundamentals/advancements associated with the surfactant stabilized gold nanomaterials.•Review focuses on properties of surfactants and gold nanomaterials.•Different synthesis methodologies of surfactant stabilized gold nanomaterials.•Focusing different types of surfactant stabilized gold nanomaterials-based sensor.•This article reviews the studies of gold nanomaterials in sensing from 2011 to 2021.