Triboelectric Generators for Sustainable Reduction Leading to Nanoparticles and Nanoclusters

In this letter, we demonstrate a sustainable, fast, and facile room temperature synthesis of plasmonic nanoparticles and luminescent nanoclusters of gold. The synthesis was performed using an affordable, easy to build, and robust triboelectric generator (TG). The electricity generated by the TG was transferred to the solution continuously to synthesize gold nanoclusters (AuNCs). The obtained AuNCs had extremely narrow size distributions with mean particle sizes of ∼2 nm and showed bright pink luminescence under UV light. The approach was also extended to synthesize plasmonic gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). With this method, the synthesis time could be reduced from hours to several minutes without requiring any reducing agents. Tunability in size by simple variation of synthetic conditions and the consequent change in properties make this method usable for diverse applications.