Formation of Gold Nanoparticle Chains in a Flow Cell Coated with Oriented Polymer Thin Films

Abstract

Gold nanoparticle chains are expected to be one of novel photonics materials in the next generation. We previously reported the formation of the gold nanoparticle chains from a colloidal gold solution on a glass substrate coated with oriented thin films of poly(tetrafluoroethylene) (PTFE). According to the proposed formation mechanism, some requisite conditions for the fabrication of the gold nanoparticle chains were extracted. In this study, the requisite conditions were reproduced in a flow cell using a glass slide with the oriented thin layers of PTFE. By applying temperature gradient to the cell and injecting a colloidal gold solution, a continuous flow was induced in the cell. By this method, the gold nanoparticle chains were successfully formed over the wider area compared to the previous reports. The gold nanoparticle chains were mostly located in the regions where the PTFE thin films were peeled off from the glass substrate. It was suspected that the negatively-charged gold nanoparticles could be electrostatically adsorbed on the glass surface owing to the positive contact charging of the glass slide after the peeling of the PTFE films.