Surface Plasmon Mediated Chemical Solution Deposition of Gold Nanoparticles on a Nanostructured Silver Surface at Room Temperature

This paper provides proof of concept for a new method of nanoscale fabrication:  exploitation of the optical properties of a nanostructured substrate to induce nanoparticle growth.  Sub-15 nm Au nanoparticles have been fabricated on a nanostructured Ag surface at room temperature via a liquid-phase chemical deposition upon excitation of the localized surface plasmon resonance (SPR) of the substrate.  Measurement of the SPR-mediated photothermal local heating of the substrate surface by molecular thermometry indicated the temperature to be above 230 °C, which is sufficient to induce molecules of CH₃AuPPh₃ to form Au nanoparticles on the Ag surface. Particle sizes are tunable between 3 and 10 nm by adjusting the deposition time and the nanoparticle surfaces are surfactant-free.  The deposition kinetics have been measured, and are consistent with a surface-limited growth model.

Doc.: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/ipdf/10.1021/ja309392x

Jingjing Qiu †, Yung-Chien Wu †, Yi-Chung Wang †,Mark H. Engelhard ‡, Lisa McElwee-White *†, andWei David Wei *† Department of Chemistry and Center for Nanostructured Electronic Materials, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611, United States. Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington 99354, United States. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2013, 135 (1), pp 38–41. Publication Date (Web): December 16, 2012. American Chemical Society.