Uniform circular disks with synthetically tailorable diameters: two-dimensional nanoparticles for plasmonics

Herein, we report the synthesis of structurally uniform gold circular disks as two-dimensional plasmonic nanostructures that complement the well-established one-dimensional rod and three-dimensional shell structures. We show that a Au conproportionation reaction can be used to etch a collection of nonuniform triangular prisms into a uniform circular disk product with thickness and diameter varying <10%. These new particles have broadly tunable plasmon resonances (650-1000 nm) with narrow bandwidths (0.23-0.28 eV) and can be described as "effectively two-dimensional" plasmonic structures, as they do not support a significant transverse mode.