Dendron-stabilised gold nanoparticles: generation dependence of core size and thermal stabilityElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: TEM images of G1-Au, G2-Au, G3-Au complete with size distribution curves, and characterization data for dendrimers G2SSG2 and G1SSG1 and nanoparticles G1-Au and G2-Au. See http://www.rsc.org/suppdata/jm/b3/b312727c

L-Lysine based dendrimers containing a disulfide moiety at the core were synthesized. These novel ligands were used to stabilize Au nanoparticles via a one-phase chemical reduction method. The size of the resultant nanoparticles was found to decrease with increasing dendritic generation. Furthermore, the thermal stability of the nanoparticles in solution was shown to be controlled by the extent of branching in the protecting dendritic shell.