Films of covalently bonded gold nanoparticles synthesized by a sol-gel process
- Dell'erba, Ignacio Esteban
- Hoppe, Cristina Elena
- Williams, Roberto Juan Jose
DOIAbstract
Gold nanoparticles (NPs) with a size close to 1.5 nm, coated with organic ligands bearing Si(OEt)3 groups, were synthesized and used to obtain self-standing films by a sol–gel process catalyzed by formic acid. Using FESEM images, FTIR, and UV–visible spectra, it was observed that very small gold NPs self-assembled by Si–O–Si covalent bonds forming crosslinked clusters with sizes up to about 50 nm in which NPs preserve their individuality. The possibility of fixing very small gold NPs in a crosslinked film opens a variety of potential applications based on the specific properties of small-size particles. As an example, we illustrated the way in which one can take advantage of the low melting temperature of these NPs to generate tiny gold cry...
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