A facile photochemical route for the synthesis of gold nanoparticles

Synthesis of high-quality, water-dispersed gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), has been prepared employing luminol as a special reductant, via direct irradiation of the molecular precursors rather than traditional heat of the solvent. The final quality of the photochemically generated nanomaterial was characterized by transmission electron microscopy, resonance light scattering spectra, and cyclic voltammetry. AuNPs could enhance the chemiluminescence intensity of the luminol-H 2 O 2 system, attributing to their catalysis. On the basis, we developed a nanoparticle-based chemiluminescence method for the determination of H 2 O 2 . The results demonstrated that it was possible to detect hydrogen peroxide in the range of 10 −8 –10 −3 M.