The assembly of nanoparticle building blocks is a pre-requisite for the amplification of the properties of the components and/or the generation of new features unique to the ensemble. Usually, nanoparticles employed for these assemblies are spherical and lack a geometrical preference toward directional self-assembly, thus limiting their potential applications. In contrast, controlled self-assembly of non-spherical nanoparticles, such as gold nanorods, enables these arrays to form defined 1D, 2D or 3D structures with a vectorial dependence of the desired properties. We show in this communication several examples where the morphology of gold nanoparticles can be modulated by means of colloid chemistry methods, and in turn exploited to direct the assembly of such nanoparticles into a variety of nanostructures with interesting properties.

Directing the morphology and assembly of gold nanoparticles

245th National Meeting (2013)

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