title: A single-step synthesis of gold nanochains using an amino acid as a capping agent and characterization of their optical properties.
abstract: We demonstrated a simple single-step synthesis of gold nanochains by reducing aqueous chloroaurate ions (AuCl(4)(-)) with sodiumborohydride (NaBH(4)) in the presence of an amino acid (glutamic acid and histidine) as a stabilizer. The structure and optical properties of gold nanochains and nanowires were characterized by transmission electron microscopy, UV-visible spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy and femtosecond z-scan measurements. The results suggested that the gold nanochains and nanowires were formed via the nanospheres fusing into one another by an oriented attachment mechanism through dipole-dipole interactions. The z-scan measurements on Au nanowires showed a transition from saturable absorption to reverse saturable absorption as the pump intensity increased.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore, 3 Science Drive 3, 117543, Singapore.
authors.forename: Lakshminarayana
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Polavarapu
authors.forename: Qing-Hua
authors.initials: QH
authors.lastname: Xu