Growth of two-dimensional dendritic nanostructures on TEM grids.

• Main Author: Lim, Jun Wei.
• Other Authors: Chen Hongyu
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Materials::Nanostructured materials
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/40228
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

A simple method of synthesizing seeded-growth two dimensional (2D) dendritic gold nanostructures is reported here. The dendrimers are grown on a TEM grid from a HAuCl4 solution, using aniline as the chemical reductant. Factors such as the reagent concentrations, time and polyaniline (PANI) attachment around gold (Au) seeds would affect the morphology of dendrimers formed during the drying process. Both Au seeds and reduced Au atoms can act as nucleation sites and the heterogeneous nucleation of Au seeds is usually preferred. However, PANI attachment on Au seeds disturbs the heterogeneous nucleation of Au seeds and thus favours the growth of seeded 2D dendrimers. The extent of PANI attachment around Au seeds can be controlled by adjusting the time and concentration of HAuCl4. This report demonstrated the growth of near-spherical and seeded 2D dendritic Au nanostructures with branches of very uniform thickness and separation width without the use of complex apparatus and techniques.