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Size and concentration controlled growth of porous gold nanofilm
Author(s) -
Zhang Renyun,
Hummelgård Magnus,
Olin Håkan
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
physica status solidi (a)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.532
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1862-6319
pISSN - 1862-6300
DOI - 10.1002/pssa.201127405
Subject(s) - materials science , nanowire , nanoparticle , porosity , colloidal gold , transmission electron microscopy , sodium citrate , nanotechnology , chemical engineering , morphology (biology) , porous medium , volume fraction , electrical resistance and conductance , composite material , medicine , pathology , biology , engineering , genetics
At an air/water interface, diffusion‐limited aggregation (DLA) of gold nanoparticles can form porous gold thin films. This porous film roughly consists of a network of irregular nanowires. For this air–water system, external parameters like temperature are well studied, while the influence of internal parameters, e.g., the size and concentration of the nanoparticles, have not been studied in detail. Here, we report on the growth of porous gold nanofilms for different nanoparticle sizes and concentrations to get a relationship between the morphology of the films and the internal parameters. The gold nanoparticles were synthesized by reducing HAuCl 4 using sodium citrate. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) characterization showed a linear relation between the formed gold nanowires and the concentration of HAuCl 4 if the concentration of sodium citrate is unchanged. A linear dependency was also found between the wire diameter and the gold nanoparticle concentration, and between the wire diameter and volume fraction of the nanoparticles. The electrical resistance of the films was measured, showing a linear relation between resistance and the inverse of the cross‐sectional area of the nanowires. This study shows the relation between the morphology and resistance of the grown porous films and the controllable internal parameters that will be useful in further exploration of this thin‐film growth method.