Ultrathin tin oxide layer-wrapped gold nanoparticles induced by laser ablation in solutions and their enhanced performances.
A simple and flexible method of preparing an ultrathin semiconducting oxide layer-wrapped gold nanoparticles (NPs) is presented. The method is a single-step procedure based on laser ablation in a precursor solution. The spherical Au NPs (<20nm in mean size) wrapped with a SnO2layer of approximately 2nm in thickness are formed after the laser ablation of a gold target in SnCl4solutions with concentrations of 0.01-0.1M. The thickness of such SnO2shell is nearly independent of Au particle sizes. Results reveal that the formation of Au@SnO2NPs involves a two-step process: the laser ablation-induced formation of Au NPs and subsequent Coulomb effect-based colloidal attachment and self-assembly on the Au NPs. Au@SnO2NPs-built film exhibits significantly stronger surface-enhanced Raman scattering effect to organic phosphor molecules (phenylphosphonic acid) and much better gas sensing performance to H2S at room temperature compared with the bare Au NPs and pure SnO2NPs films, respectively. This work presents a simple route to fabricating noble-metal NPs wrapped with symmetrical and ultrathin semiconducting oxide shells.
Key Lab of Materials Physics, Anhui Key Lab of Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology, Institute of Solid State Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031, PR China; University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, PR China.
Haoming
H
Bao
Key Lab of Materials Physics, Anhui Key Lab of Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology, Institute of Solid State Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031, PR China.
Yingying
Y
Wang
Key Lab of Materials Physics, Anhui Key Lab of Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology, Institute of Solid State Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031, PR China. Electronic address: hwzhang@issp.ac.cn.
Hongwen
H
Zhang
Key Lab of Materials Physics, Anhui Key Lab of Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology, Institute of Solid State Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031, PR China.
Qian
Q
Zhao
Key Lab of Materials Physics, Anhui Key Lab of Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology, Institute of Solid State Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031, PR China.
Guangqiang
G
Liu
Key Lab of Materials Physics, Anhui Key Lab of Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology, Institute of Solid State Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031, PR China; University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, PR China. Electronic address: wpcai@issp.ac.cn.
Weiping
W
Cai
Laser ablation in solutions; One-step fabrication; SnO(2)-wrapped gold nanoparticles; Ultrathin shell layer