On the non-innocence of the imidazolium cation in a rapid microwave synthesis of oleylamine-capped gold nanoparticles in an ionic liquid

We report a very fast (10-30 s) microwave method to prepare oleylamine-capped, monodisperse ca. 8-11 nm gold nanoparticles in an ionic liquid. A pyrrolidinium-based ionic liquid proved an excellent medium for the task whereas, despite their popularity in nanosynthesis, imidazolium ionic liquids gave no colloidally-stable gold nanoparticles in an otherwise identical reaction.