ABSTRACT
The library of plasmonic nanosystems keeps expanding with novel structures with the potential to provide new solutions to old problems in science and technology. We report the synthesis of a novel plasmonic system based on the growth of gold nanowires radially branching from the surface of silica particles. The nanowires length could be controlled by tuning the molar ratio between metal salt and surface-grafted seeds. Electron microscopy characterization revealed that the obtained one-dimensional nanoparticles are polycrystalline but uniformly distributed on the spherical template. The length of the nanowires in turn determines the optical response of the metallodielectric particles, so that longer wires display red-shifted longitudinal plasmon bands. Accurate theoretical modeling of these complex objects revealed that the densely organized nanowires display intrinsically coupled plasmon modes that can be selectively decoupled upon detachment of the nanowires from the surface of the colloidal silica template.
Subject(s)
Gold/chemistry , Nanoparticles/chemistry , Nanowires/chemistry , Silicon Dioxide/chemistry , Colloids/chemistry , Nanotechnology , Nanowires/ultrastructure , Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet , Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared , Surface Plasmon ResonanceABSTRACT
The concept of protecting groups, widely used in organic chemistry, has been applied for the synthesis of Au-silica Janus stars, in which gold branches protrude from one half of Au-silica Janus spheres. This configuration opens up new possibilities to apply the plasmonic properties of gold nanostars, as well as a variety of chemical functionalizations on the silica component.
Subject(s)
Gold/chemistry , Nanoparticles/chemistry , Nanotechnology , Silicon Dioxide/chemistry , Chemistry Techniques, Synthetic , Models, Molecular , Molecular ConformationABSTRACT
This work describes a novel and scalable colloid chemistry strategy to fabricate gold semishells based on the selective growth of gold on Janus silica particles (500 nm in diameter) partly functionalized with amino groups. The modulation of the geometry of the Janus silica particles allows us to tune the final morphology of the gold semishells. This method also provides a route to fabricating hollow gold semishells through etching of the silica cores with hydrofluoric acid. The optical properties were characterized by visible near-infrared (vis-NIR) spectroscopy and compared with simulations performed using the boundary element method (BEM). These revealed that the main optical features are located beyond the NIR region because of the large core size.
