Effect of particle size distributions on absorbance spectra of gold nanoparticles

In this paper, a method is developed to calculate the absorbance spectra of nanoparticles solution containing a size distribution of particles using the Mie theory. The standard gold nanoparticles solutions were purchased and characterized with the UV–visible absorption spectroscopy and dynamic light scattering size measurements techniques. Model size distributions were fit to the experimental absorbance spectra using the method described herein. Good semi-quantitative fits were found, which elucidate qualitative differences between “small” and “large” gold nanoparticles.