An anisotropic snowflake-like structural assembly of polymer-capped gold nanoparticles

Abstract

Snowflake-like structural assembly of isotropic gold nanoparticles (GNPs) is reported. A modified polyamine method has been employed to synthesize positively charged GNPs in presence of a polymeric metaphosphate. This process yields fascinating dendritic self-assembled morphologies. Structural characterization revealed that there was aggregation of crystalline GNPs. The aggregates of GNPs formed in the initial stage of synthesis are assumed to act as the bulging seeds for final growth of complex morphologies at nanometer to micrometer length scale. Self-assembly of GNPs was found to be greatly influenced by the concentration of gold precursor. Diffusion limited aggregation of GNPs is suggested as the plausible mechanism for this nanoparticle self-organization process.