OPTICAL AND ELECTROCHEMICAL ACTIVITY OF GOLD FLOWER-SHAPE CRYSTALS

A novel approach for a controlled growth of pattern-directed organization of Au flower shape crystals (NFS) onto rigid substrate has been proposed to achieve large-scale functional materials. This process is based on the combination of soft nanoporous template and a multistage aqueous chemical method. First, a hexagonal array of gold nanoparticles was prepared using a nanoporous thin membrane by a seed-mediated growth colloidal process. The size and morphology of the Au NFs were then controlled by a site selective heterogeneous nucleation and growth onto the Au precursors. The growth mechanism of the template-directed synthesis of Au crystals arrays was investigated. The optical and electrochemical properties of Au NFs were discussed in relation with their morphology and organization. Results show that the nature, the size, the interparticle distance and their density strongly affect the intensity of the optical and electrochemical signals. Finally, this easy and multistep approach is particularly attractive due to its environmentally gentle processing conditions and represents an open pathway to several large-scale nanomaterials fabrication.