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Nanoscale Spatial Separation to Regulate Gold Microstructures Formation
Author(s) -
Balgley Renata,
Rechav Katya,
Lahav Michal,
Boom Milko E.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
chemistryselect
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.437
H-Index - 34
ISSN - 2365-6549
DOI - 10.1002/slct.201903067
Subject(s) - nucleation , microstructure , nanoscopic scale , materials science , nanotechnology , scanning electron microscope , chemical engineering , nanostructure , substrate (aquarium) , chemical physics , composite material , chemistry , organic chemistry , oceanography , geology , engineering
Flower‐like gold microstructures are directly formed from solution on the surface of nanometric molecular assemblies. We show that the size and morphology of these microstructures are controlled by the nanoscale thickness of the assemblies, which consist of ruthenium polypyridyl complexes crosslinked with a palladium salt. Gold electrodeposition on these ultrathin (3–15 nm) molecular assemblies, bound to a conductive substrate, follows an instantaneous nucleation regime that results in multiple small clusters. On thicker assemblies (15–55 nm) a progressive nucleation mode is dominant, which leads to the formation of larger (up to 50 times) and highly branched microstructures. The ability to control the characteristics of these microstructures by nanoscale assemblies is based on the mechanistic insights of the nucleation and growth processes obtained by electrochemical means and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) measurement.