Nature's Own Nano Gold Found

July 17, 2008 -- Miniscule triangular and hexagonal plates of gold less than 20 nanometers thin and identical to those manufactured by humans have been found occurring naturally in salty groundwaters of Western Australia.

The Aussie nano gold in the water gets as thin as six nanometers and previously escaped detection by electron microscopes, say Australian researchers. Nano gold is being developed for use in for drug delivery, optics, superconductors and catalysts, but until now, it was thought to be entirely manmade.

"It's very, very similar to the colloidal gold people have been growing in laboratories," said Robert Hough of the Mining and Exploration branch of Australian government's research agency, CSIRO. He is the lead author of a paper describing the nano gold in the July issue of Geology.

The gold nano particles had appeared as ghostly grey shapes in scanning electron microscope (SEM) images. By applying what's called "high-resolution secondary electron imaging in a field emission SEM," Hough and his team were able to look directly at the ultra thin gold particles.

"I am surprised," said Pablo Jadzinsky who uses nanogold in organic chemistry research at Stanford University.

Nano gold is currently a hot topic for research and development, Jadzinsky said, and getting hotter.