Thursday, 6th October 2005 (4497 views)

Results from carbon-coated gold nanoparticle research may aid technological advances in the chemical, biological and electronic arenas.

Researchers at the US Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have identified the process by which nanoparticles can be combined into larger particles and can control it, reports Ascribe.

The research was carried out on gold nanoparticles, surrounded by a coating of carbon atoms. By imaging these particles at different temperatures an intriguing pattern was found.

At low temperatures, the gold particles joined together after creating a one-atom sized bridge, whereas at high temperatures the gold particles were kept apart by the carbon atoms that became active and encased them.

Further experiments revealed that if the electron beam's intensity was varied then a carbon coating could be created over all the gold particles, but rather than isolating the particles this unexpectedly brought them together.

"The large shell exerted pressure on the particles within it, broke their individual shells and triggered a merging process that is similar to what occurred at low temperatures," explained Eli Sutter, the study's primary author.

This suggests that, when coated in carbon, gold particles' size can be controlled by varying the temperature.

 

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