Growth and study of gold microplates for electrodes application

Abstract

The gold nanoparticles have been extensively used as contrast agents. They have been successfully used as part of the treatment for some diseases, like by directing gold nanoparticles into the nuclei of cancer cells, they can only not hinder them from multiplying, but also kill them. In this paper, we report the synthesis of gold microplates <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">[1]</sup> . We employ thermolysis and spin coating techniques to obtain hexagonal and triangular Au microplates of large sizes upto hundreds of microns. This involves thermolysis of a precursor, (AuCl4) <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">−</sup> phase transferred from aqueous medium and stabilized in toluene by tetraoctylammonium bromide which yields large hexagonal and triangular gold microplates. The Optical Microscope was used to visualise the size of Au microplates on different substrates like HOPG, Si wafer and cover slip. It was found that Au microplates size on HOPG substrate varies from 5 to 18.84 µm, on Si wafer it varies from 4.79 to 25 µm and on cover slip, the size varies from 5.49 to 17.97 µm. The gold microplates have interesting properties which find applications in molecular electronics, surface science and electrode applications.