Polymer coated nanogold for tracing mobility of engineered nanoparticles in subsurface water

Gold nanoparticles coated with amphiphilic block co-polymer PVP-VA are found to be extremely mobile in sand columns in laboratory based experiments. The ultra-stability obtained by such surface modification is also shown by diluting down to a concentration of 62.5 ppb in groundwater having other ions. Such a low level detection of particles is achieved by non-destructive simple UV-Vis spectroscopic technique equipped with liquid wave guide capillary cell (LWCC) units. These results propose the possibility of using surface engineered gold nanoparticles as model system for tracing the mobility of other engineered nanoparticles in the subsurface.