Effective and selective extraction of noble metal nanoparticles from environmental water through a noncovalent reversible reaction on an ionic exchange resin.

Capable of preserving the size and shape of nanoparticles, a novel method to effectively and selectively extract noble metal nanoparticles even at the 80 ng L(-1) level from real environmental water was designed and performed using a noncovalent reversible adsorption onto an ionic exchange resin.