Growth of various Au-Ag nanocomposites from gold seeds in amino acid solutions

In this paper, we describe an easy procedure for the preparation of differently shaped and sized Au-Ag nanocomposites from gold nanorod (AuNR) seeds in various amino acid solutions-arginine (Arg), cysteine (Cys), glycine (Gly), glutamate (Glu), glutamine (Gln), histidine ( His), lysine (Lys), and methionine (Met), respectively-at values of pH ranging from 8.0 to 11.5. Our results suggest that the pH, the nature of the amino acid, and its concentration all have significant impact on the preparation of Au-Ag nanocomposites; these factors exhibit their effects mainly through control over the reducing ability of ascorbate and/or its recognition capability, as well as through control over the surface charges of the amino acids on the AuNRs. Depending on the value of pH, we were able to prepare I-shaped, dumbbell-shaped, and/or sphere-shaped Au-Ag nanocomposites in 0.1 M solutions of Arg, Gly, Glu, Gln, Lys, and Met. In His solutions at pH 8.0 and 9.0, we obtained peanut-shaped Au-Ag nanocomposites. Corn-shaped Au-Ag nanocomposites were prepared in 0.1 M Met solutions ( pH 9.0 and 10.0). By controlling the Lys concentration at pH 10.0, we synthesized pearl-necklace-shaped Au-Ag nanoparticles and Au-Ag wires. Based on the TEM images, we conclude that this simple and reproducible synthetic approach allows preparation of high-quality (> 87%, beside > 77% in His solutions) Au-Ag nanocomposites with various shapes and sizes under different conditions.