Characterization and optical properties of gold nanoparticles dispersed in nylon 11 thin films

We have prepared nylon 11 thin films containing individually isolated Au particles with various volume fractions ranging from 1.7 to 8.3% by means of a consecutive evaporation followed by heat treatment. The films obtained were characterized by TEM, XPS and UV-VIS absorption spectroscopy. Au particles were homogeneously distributed in the whole of the film after heat treatment at 100 degrees C for 10 min. The mean size of the Au particles increased from 3.2 to 5.2 nm in diameter upon increasing the volume fraction of Au particles; UV-VIS spectroscopy revealed that a peak position due to the surface plasmon resonance absorption of the Au particles shifted to longer wavelength as the volume fraction of the Au particles increased, accompanied by an increase of its peak intensity.