Text: Evaluation of the Colloidal Gold Preparation Once synthesized, colloidal gold preparations need to be evaluated structurally for several criteria. This is easily accomplished by drying a small aliquot of the unlabeled colloidal gold onto a coated grid. Several representative micrographs should be taken, from which the mean particle diameter and the coefficient of variation are determined. If the average particle diameter is significantly (±20%) different from the reported mean diameter, one may correct this in subsequent preparations by modifying the amount of reductant used (increse reductant to reduce size), the volume (decrease volume to decrease size), the degree of reactant mixing during the nucleation step (increase agitation to decrese size), and the reaction temperature (increase temperature to reduce size).

See Also:

Source: 185