In this paper, we demonstrate a template-free, site-specific, and scalable electrochemical method for the fabrication of individually addressable polyaniline nanoframework electrode junctions in a parallel-oriented array. These polyaniline nanoframeworks, which are composed of numerous intercrossing polyaniline nanowires that have uniform diameters ranging from 40 to 80 nm, can be used for the chemical sensing of HCl and NH 3 gases and ethanol vapor and for sensing the pH of aqueous NaCl solutions.

The self-assembly of 12 nm PbSe nanocrystals on a graphite surface during solvent evaporation is analyzed within the two-dimensional van der Waals phase condensation model. The interparticle attractive force, phase separation kinetics, and critical coverage in this system can be revealed from aggregation spatial patterns at different kinetic stages. Cracking in nanocrystal monolayer drying at high coverage reveals limitations of this model.

No abstract

Dendritic gold (Au) nanoparticles have been successfully synthesized by the one-step hydrothermal reduction of HAuCl4.4H2O using ammonium formate (AF) as a reducing agent in the presence of PVP. Effects of different reactant concentrations on the morphologies of obtained products have been systematically investigated. On the basis of the morphologies of the products observed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), it has been found that an excessive number of AF molecules are the origin of the dendritic Au particles besides PVP as a stabilizer. AF molecules serve not only as a reductant but probably also as a capping reagent. The study implies that the use of two or more capping reagents with different adsorption abilities will be beneficial to the formation of hyperbranched Au nanoparticles. The new finding will have the potential to be extended to the construction of other highly branched noble metal nanoparticles only by one-step synthesis. In addition, as an example, application of the dendritic particles as an active material in surface-enhanced Raman scattering has been investigated by employing 4-aminothiophenol molecules as a probe.