An approach to fabrication of metal nanoring arrays

Fabrication of tailored nanomaterials with desired structure and properties is the greatest challenge of modern nanotechnology. Herein, we describe a wet chemical method for the preparation of large area metal nanoring arrays. This method is based on self-assembly of polystyrene sphere template on a flat substrate and wicking/reducing metal precursor into the interstices between the template and the substrate. In this article, platinum, gold, and copper nanorings were fabricated by applying 505 nm polystyrene spheres onto highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) and Si(100) substrates, followed by reducing the templated metal salt with NaBH(4). AFM images reveal formation of arrays of metal nanorings comprising metal nanoparticles with the average ring height of 5.7 +/- 0.8 nm and diameter of 167.3 +/- 8.9 nm. XPS confirms that these structures are metallic.