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Plasmon-driven chemical synthesis

Growing gold nanoprisms with light

Nature Materials volume 15, pages 824–825 (2016)Cite this article

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An adsorbed polymer directs the photochemical growth of colloidal Au single-crystal nanoprisms following visible metal excitation.

Noble metal Au nanocrystals are industrial catalysts and are also widely employed in medicinal assays and therapeutics, for example in spherical DNA diagnostic nanostructures1. In medicine, the intrinsic chemical stability of Au is an asset, yet this inertness makes it difficult to synthesize single-crystal nanostructures of designed size and shape. Photochemical synthetic processes often show exquisite specificity and control as compared with thermal reactions. However, metals do not have the type of molecular or semiconductor excited states that lead to normal photochemistry. Nevertheless, writing in Nature Materials, David Wei and co-workers2 now show that Au nanocrystals can be grown with controlled shape by optical excitation of the metal itself. An organic polymer adsorbed on specific surface facets directs photo-excited electrons as they reduce aqueous AuCl4− ions to add metal to the growing nanocrystal.

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Figure 1: Plasmon-driven synthesis of Au nanoprisms.

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  1. Louis Brus is in the Department of Chemistry of Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA,

    Louis Brus

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  1. Louis Brus
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Correspondence to Louis Brus.

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Brus, L. Growing gold nanoprisms with light. Nature Mater 15, 824–825 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat4698

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