Immobilization of gold nanorods onto acid-terminated self-assembled monolayers via electrostatic interactions

We report the immobilization of gold nanorods onto self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of 16-mercaptohexadecanoic acid (16-MHA). The simple two step protocol involves formation of a SAM of 16-MHA molecules onto gold-coated glass slides and subsequent immersion of these slides into the gold nanorod solution. The nanorods, formed by a seed-mediated, surfactant-assisted synthesis protocol, are stabilized in solution due to surface modification by the surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB). Attractive electrostatic interactions between the carboxylic acid group on the SAM and the positively charged CTAB molecules are likely responsible for the nanorod immobilization. UV-vis spectroscopy has been used to follow the kinetics of the nanorod immobilization. The nature of interaction between the gold nanorods and the 16-MHA SAM has been probed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The surface morphology of the immobilized rods is studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements. SEM was also used to determine the density of the immobilized nanorods as a function of the pH of immobilization. Control over the surface coverage of the immobilized gold nanorods has been demonstrated by simple pH variation. Such well-dispersed immobilized gold nanorods with control over the surface coverage could be interesting substrates for applications such as surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS).