It is anticipated that the built three-dimensional nanostructures would display novel physical characteristics. Additionally, their distinct optical qualities may facilitate the advancement of technologies like highly sensitive multi-color sensors. The research findings were released in Nanoscale Advances.
Due to the limited contact orientation and low contact probability between gold nanoparticles, it has proven challenging to create higher-order structures out of them thus far.
In this study, the researchers created a place where gold nanoparticles could contact each other from all directions by enclosing numerous nanoparticles in a mesoporous silica shell that was submicron in size. This enhanced the contact probability between the nanoparticles and is the first report of successful three-dimensional gold nanostructure manufacturing.
The three-dimensional gold nanostructures generated by this process were observed with a scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM), and calculations for electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) mapping were carried out based on these images. The findings showed that the energy of the incident electromagnetic field generates several plasmon modes and that the plasmon mode of the three-dimensional structure affects the location of hot spots.
Journal Reference:
Yamada, R., et. al. (2023) Three-dimensional building of anisotropic gold nanoparticles under confinement in submicron capsules. Nanoscale Advances. doi:10.1039/D3NA00683B