We report on a simple, generally applicable method for depositing gold and silver nanoparticles on a wide variety of solid surfaces under all aqueous conditions. Noble-metal nanoparticles obtained by citrate reduction followed by coating with thermoresponsive polymers spontaneously form a monolayer-like structure on a wide variety of substrates in presence of sodium chloride whereas this phenomenon does not occur in salt-free medium. Interestingly, this phenomenon occurs below the cloud point temperature of the polymers and we hypothesize that salt ion-induced screening of electrostatic charges on the nanoparticle surface entropically favors hydrophobic association between the polymer-coated nanoparticles and a hydrophobic substrate.

Salt-triggered deposition of polymer-coated noble metal nanoparticles on solid surfaces

253rd National Meeting (2017)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.