Australia's Science Forum

We have a teacher wanting to do the AccessNano/TechNYou "Making Gold Nanoparticles" experiment.
It calls for gold hydrogen tetrachloride (Chloroauric acid) HAuCl4.3H2O.
I can't find it anywhere. Any clues where to get it easily, how much it costs or if it is a mixture?

When it is too hard to find the stuff teachers want, ask "what part of the syllabus/curriculum is that in". It may well be a cool experiement, but is it necessary for a high school?
BTW I couldn't find it in Chemwatch or Serrata either.

It is from a National Nanotechnology Secondary School Resource developed by CSIRO. Not helpful if schools can't get the chemicals....

It seems to be available in the US at a cost prohibitive to most schools. Sigma Aldrich. But couldn't easily see a vendor here.

looks like you only need your gold tooth or a few Nobel peace prizes!!!


http://scienceblogs.com/moleculeoftheda ... quid-gold/
Shas

Thanks everyone - and for the humour too! I'll just find those gold medals of mine now and.......

Chem-Supply stock Gold (lll) chloride trihydrate. Price check on the Sigma Aldrich site is :-

1g - $168, 5g - $580, 25g - $2185.

I think it may be a little expensive for a science experiment. Unless of course the teacher wants to pay for it out of their own pocket!!!! Was the teacher looking at the "Effect of gold and silver nanoparticles on brine shrimp"?

Lyn.

We actually HAVE it.. HOD wanted it a year ago and he signed to purchase it.. used it ONCE.... I think it is the most expensive unused chemical that we have

Thanks. It seems a few people have done this experiment and purchased this chemical. Initial outlay is steep, but the amount used each year is very small so cost per use/year is not so bad.