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8. Discussion Questions

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    254795
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    1. What is the oxidation number of gold in HAuCl4?
    2. What do we mean when we say that gold is being reduced?
    3. Obtain the particle size results from your classmates and construct a table reporting the gold nanoparticle diameter for each synthetic condition. What trends can be observed?
    4. Analyze all the visible spectra collected in the shared folder and expand the table constructed in part 3 to include the wavelength of maximum absorbance (λmax). What relationship do you observe between λmax and the particle size?
    5. What information do you obtain from a histogram of your particle diameter data that you would miss if you just looked at the average diameter?
    6. What are the benefits and limitations of characterizing nanoparticles with UV-VIS spectroscopy? What about with transmission electron microscopy? If you had access to both techniques, what would you use to best characterize the size of the nanoparticle and why?

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