Controlled Step Growth of Molecularly Linked Gold Nanoparticles: From Metallic Monomers to Dimers to Polymeric Nanoparticle Chains.
The solution-phase assembly of 15 nm gold particles into relatively linear chains of fairly controllable length of up to 1 mum is achieved by molecularly linking nanoparticles with alkanedithiols. This step-growth process can be controlled to prepare dimers, oligomers, and polymer-like gold nanoparticle chains by varying the ratio of alkanedithiols to nanoparticles. These size-controlled, relative
