Atmospheric-Pressure Pulsed Discharge Plasma in a Slug Flow Reactor System for the Synthesis of Gold Nanoparticles

Gold nanoparticle (AuNP) formation by applying pulsed discharge plasma in the slug flow reactor system was demonstrated. Experiments were carried out continuously at room temperature. The argon gas as a gas phase and the hydrogen tetrachloroaurate(III) tetra hydrate solution containing lysine as a liquid phase simultaneously flowed in the slug flow reactor system. The flow rates of the feed solution and argon gas were kept at 1.5 and 0.2 mL/min, respectively. To generate discharge plasma, the AC power supply with a bipolar pulsed output at 10 kV was applied. The purple color solution product was obtained, and the ultraviolet–visible (UV–vis) spectrophotometer showed that this possessed the absorption light from 510 to 550 nm associated with the existence of gold nanoparticles in each collected sample. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed that the lysine-capped AuNPs were produced in a spherical morphology and dispersed in aqueous solution products with a diameter of less than 20 nm.