Formation of self-assembled gold nanoparticle supercrystals with facet-dependent surface plasmonic coupling

Abstract

Metallic nanoparticles, such as gold and silver nanoparticles, can self-assemble into highly ordered arrays known as supercrystals for potential applications in areas such as optics, electronics, and sensor platforms. Here we report the formation of self-assembled 3D faceted gold nanoparticle supercrystals with controlled nanoparticle packing and unique facet-dependent optical property by using a binary solvent diffusion method. The nanoparticle packing structures from specific facets of the supercrystals are characterized by small/wide-angle X-ray scattering for detailed reconstruction of nanoparticle translation and shape orientation from mesometric to atomic levels within the supercrystals. We discover that the binary diffusion results in hexagonal close packed supercrystals whose size and quality are determined by initial nanoparticle concentration and diffusion speed. The supercrystal solids display unique facet-dependent surface plasmonic and surface-enhanced Raman characteristics. The ease of the growth of large supercrystal solids facilitates essential correlation between structure and property of nanoparticle solids for practical integrations.

Engineering State‐of‐the‐Art Plasmonic Nanomaterials for SERS‐Based Clinical Liquid Biopsy Applications

“…[51] The growth of gold nanoparticle supercrystals was achieved by slowly driving the nanoparticle solution to supersaturation with increasing antisolvent concentrations. Particularly, plasmonic supercrystals provide tunable plasmon resonances and intensified electromagnetic fields at nanoparticle interstices.…”

Assembly of gold nanoparticles using turnip yellow mosaic virus as an in-solution SERS sensor

“…Most of the time planar or completely spherical structures are obtained by such assembling tool. [30][31][32] Graing AuNPs to the surface of the icosahedral-shaped cowpea mosaic virus (CPMV) has been already achieved and the resulting leading to AuNP-CPMV biohybrids have been successfully used as DNA SERS sensors. 33 A mutation on the coat protein allowed the substitution by cysteine amino acid residue at the surface of the capsid, offering several positions to covalently bond AuNPs to the CPMV surface.…”

Flickering nanometre-scale disorder in a crystal lattice tracked by plasmonic flare light emission

“…T he ability to observe atomic restructuring processes at metallic surfaces has been an intense focus for understanding catalysis [1][2][3] , material hardness and fracture 4,5 , surface wetting 6 , as well as interface phenomena 7,8 within molecular electronics 9 , spintronics and magnetic storage devices 6 . Nanomaterials and nanoparticles offer emergent tunable properties 10,11 as they are composed of large fractions of surface atoms, while understanding molecular binding onto different crystalline facets is at the root of catalytic activity, electrochemical processes and surface restructurings. Well-established techniques to study such effects have increasingly shifted from X-ray 12 , electron-scattering 2,13 and neutron-scattering on large areas 14 , to tracking of individual atomic facets with transmission electronand scanning tunnelling-microscopies 15,16 .…”