Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 5, 2026
09:17
Assembly of Gold Nanorods into Chiral Plasmonic Metamolecules Using DNA Origami Templates
Published on: March 5, 2019
10.5K
Self-assembly of gold nanorods into vertically aligned, rectangular microplates with a supercrystalline structure
Junyan Xiao1, Zhe Li, Xiaozhou Ye
1Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory for Structural Chemistry of Unstable and Stable Species, College of Chemistry, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China. liminqi@pku.edu.cn.
Nanoscale
|December 3, 2013
Summary
Researchers developed a new method for self-assembling gold nanorods into vertically aligned supercrystals. This technique prevents the coffee-ring effect, enabling uniform, large-area fabrication of rectangular microplates with unique optical properties.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Nanotechnology
- Optics
Background:
- Fabricating ordered nanostructures over large areas is challenging.
- Controlling nanoparticle assembly to achieve specific shapes and properties remains a key goal.
- The coffee-ring effect often leads to non-uniform deposition in solution evaporation methods.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a novel method for large-area fabrication of vertically aligned gold nanorod (GNR) supercrystals.
- To investigate the self-assembly mechanism of GNRs into supercrystalline microplates.
- To explore the optical properties of the resulting GNR supercrystals.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a novel bulk solution evaporation method for self-assembly of gold nanorods.
- Employed a continuous contact line movement strategy to avoid the coffee-ring effect.
- Designed micropatterned substrates to guide nucleation and growth direction.
Main Results:
- Successfully fabricated vertically aligned, supercrystalline microplates with well-defined rectangular shapes over a large area.
- Demonstrated uniform deposition of discrete GNR superstructures, forming geometrically symmetric GNR supercrystals.
- Proposed and supported a mechanism involving continuous nucleation and growth of smectic GNR superstructures.
- Observed anisotropic optical reflection properties in the rectangular-plate-shaped GNR supercrystals.
Conclusions:
- The novel evaporative self-assembly method effectively produces large-area, vertically aligned GNR supercrystals.
- The developed technique overcomes the coffee-ring effect, enabling controlled formation of uniform nanostructures.
- The resulting GNR supercrystals exhibit anisotropic optical properties, opening possibilities for photonic applications.
