Molecularly tuned size selectivity in thermal processing of gold nanoparticles

The molecular tuning of the size selectivity of nanoparticles in the thermal processing was investigated. The tuning was accomplished in a proof-of-concept demonstration for monolayer-protected gold nanoparticles by manipulating the chain length and the concentration of alkanethiols in the processing solution. the precursor gold nanoparticles encapsulated with decanethiolate (DT) monolayer shells were synthesized using Brust two-phase method giving an average size. All subsequent heating treatments were performed on identical samples from the common stock solution. The reaction was placed in a preheated oven set temperature. It was observed that a set of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) micrographs for samples obtained from thermal processing in the presence of alkanethiols of different chain lengths under constant concentration. The thermal evolved particles showed largely spherical morphology with haxagon like features identification.