title: Sculpturing patterns of plasmonic silver nanoprisms by means of photocatalytic lithography.
abstract: The controlled shaping of nanoparticles' morphology is one of the pillars of nanotechnology. Here, we demonstrate that photocatalytic lithography, a technique already proved to be useful in materials science, can act as a dry etching technique for noble metal nanoparticles. Triangular silver nanoprisms are self-assembled on titanium dioxide films and photocatalytically shaped into discoidal particles upon irradiation with near-UV light. The obtained patterned surfaces show a dramatically different surface-enhanced Raman scattering response, suggesting the utility of our approach for the development of sensors. The photocatalytic nature of the particle shaping is demonstrated and a plausible mechanism drawn by performing photocatalysis in different configurations (direct and remote) and by irradiating in different solvents.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze e Innovazione Tecnologica, Università del Piemonte Orientale 'Amedeo Avogadro', Viale T. Michel 11, I-15100 Alessandria, Italy.
authors.forename: Guido
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Panzarasa
authors.forename: Guido
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Soliveri
authors.forename: Gianluigi
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Marra
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Meda
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Savoini
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ardizzone
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Salvalaggio