Nano Express
Suspended hybrid films assembled from thiol-capped gold nanoparticles
College of Materials Science and Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400045, People's Republic of China
Nanoscale Research Letters 2012, 7:295 doi:10.1186/1556-276X-7-295
Published: 6 June 2012Abstract
In this work, we explored the formation processes of suspended hybrid thin films of thiol-capped Au nanoparticles (AuNPs) inside metal oxide tubular structures. We found that a balance between in-film interactions of the AuNPs and boundary interactions with metal oxides is a key in making these special organic–inorganic thin films. The hybrid films process many processing advantages and flexibilities, such as controllable film thickness, interfacial shape and inter-AuNPs distance, tuning of particle sizes, thiol population, chain lengths, and other new properties by introducing functional groups to thiol chains. Among their many unique features, the assembly-disassembly property may be useful for future on-off or store-release applications.
