The results highlight the importance of long-range electrostatic interactions in determining nanoparticle properties in aqueous solutions. They suggest that electrostatics is one of the central factors in complexation of AuNPs with other nanomaterials and biological systems, and that effects of electrostatics as water-mediated interactions are relatively long-ranged, which likely plays a role in, e.g., the interplay between nanoparticles and lipid membranes that surround cells