Spike Growth on Patterned Gold Nanoparticle Scaffolds

This work reports a scaffold-templated, bottom-up synthesis of 3D anisotropic nanofeatures on periodic arrays of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). Our method relies on substrate-bound AuNPs as large seeds with hemispherical shapes and smooth surfaces after the thermal annealing of as-fabricated particles. Spiky features were grown by immersing the patterned AuNPs into a growth solution consisting of a gold salt and Good's buffer; the number and length of spikes could be tuned by changing the solution pH and buffer concentration. Intermediate structures that informed the growth mechanism were characterized as a function of time by correlating the optical properties and spike features. Large-area (cm²) spiky AuNP arrays exhibited surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy enhancement that was associated with increased numbers of high-aspect-ratio spikes formed on the AuNP seeds.