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Wednesday, 7th December 2005 (6254 views)

Gold metallisation and ion bombardment have been used to create particles whose bonding behaviour can be chemically tailored.

Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces believe they can help to further research into the chemistry of colours.

By creating particles that do not react with each other in spherically symmetrical ways, they will be able to learn more about the workings of atoms, which behave in a similar manner.

After bombarding a colloidal crystal with ions they metallised it with gold, which then infiltrated throughout the particle, even to its underside. This enabled them to create patterns of metallisation of various symmetries on the nanoscale.

Gold is widely used in chemical reactions, specifically to join particles. These latest experiments could lead to developments in reactive paint colours and in optical data processing.

 

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