Direct dissolution of Au nanoparticles induced by potassium ferricyanide

In this work, we studied the reaction between Au nanoparticles (Au NPs) and [Fe(CN)6]3− by the UV–vis absorption spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and transmission electron microscopy. The absorption peak of Au NPs disappeared after adding [Fe(CN)6]3− and the XPS data conformed the formation of [Au(CN)2]−. The results demonstrated that [Fe(CN)6]3− could induce the dissolution of Au NPs, where the CN− from the dissociation of [Fe(CN)6]3− played an important role.