Controlling anisotropic nanoparticle growth through plasmon excitation

Rongchao Jin, Y. Charles Cao, Encai Hao, Gabriella S. Métraux, George C. Schatz, Chad A. Mirkin*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1661 Scopus citations

Abstract

Inorganic nanoparticles exhibit size-dependent properties that are of interest for applications ranging from biosensing and catalysis to optics and data storage. They are readily available in a wide variety of discrete compositions and sizes. Shape-selective synthesis strategies now also yield shapes other than nanospheres, such as anisotropic metal nanostructures with interesting optical properties. Here we demonstrate that the previously described photoinduced method for converting silver nanospheres into triangular silver nanocrystals-so-called nanoprisms-can be extended to synthesize relatively monodisperse nanoprisms with desired edge lengths in the 30-120 nm range. The particle growth process is controlled using dual-beam illumination of the nanoparticles, and appears to be driven by surface plasmon excitations. We find that, depending on the illumination wavelengths chosen, the plasmon excitations lead either to fusion of nanoprisms in an edge-selective manner or to the growth of the nanoprisms until they reach their light-controlled final size.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)487-490
Number of pages4
JournalNature
Volume425
Issue number6957
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 2 2003

Funding

Acknowledgements We acknowledge the use of a Cary 500 spectrometer in the Keck Biophysics Facility at Northwestern University. C.A.M and G.C.S. thank the AFOSR, ONR, DARPA and NSF for support of this work. R.J. is grateful for the support of the American Chemical Society Cognis Fellowship in Colloid and Surface Chemistry.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General

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