Directed Self-Assembly of Micron-Sized Gold Nanoplatelets into Oriented Flexible Stacks with Tunable Interplate Distance

H.R. Vutukuri, S Badaire, Matthijs de Winter, A. Imhof, A. van Blaaderen

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

A growing demand for control over the interparticle spacing and the orientation of anisotropic metallic particles into self-assembled structures is fuelled by their use in potential applications such as in plasmonics, catalysis, sensing, and optoelectronics. Here, we present an improved high yield synthesis method to fabricate micron- and submicron-sized gold nanoplatelets with a thickness less than 20 nm using silver nanoplatelets as seeds. By tuning the depth of the secondary minimum in the DLVO interaction potential between these particles, we are able to assemble the platelets into dynamic and flexible stacks containing thousands of platelets arranged face-to-face with well-defined spacing. Moreover, we demonstrate that the length of the stacks, and the interplate distance can be controlled between tens and hundreds of nm with the ionic strength. We use a high frequency external electric field to control the orientation of the stacks and direct the stacks into highly organized 2D and 3D assemblies that strongly polarize light.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)5617–5623
Number of pages7
JournalNano Letters
Volume15
Issue number8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 3 Aug 2015

Keywords

  • Gold nanoplatelets
  • directed self-assembly
  • DLVO potential
  • flexible stacks
  • electric fields
  • plasmonics

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Directed Self-Assembly of Micron-Sized Gold Nanoplatelets into Oriented Flexible Stacks with Tunable Interplate Distance'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this