Interfacial polygonal patterning via surfactant-mediated self-assembly of gold nanoparticles

In this work, we explored the formation processes of interfacial polygonal patterning via surfactant-mediated self-assembly of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). We found that a balance between DDT-capped AuNPs and PVP-passivated AuNPs is a key to making these inorganic-organic thin films. The interfacial polygonal patterning possesses many processing advantages and flexibilities, such as controllable interfacial shape and inter-AuNP distance, tuning of particle sizes, thiol population, chain lengths, and other new properties by introducing functional groups to thiol chains. In principle, self-assembly of AuNPs via well-designed interfaces may be useful for fabrications of other complex architectures.