I am trying to have a thin monolayer of gold nanoparticles on acrylic surface, but I don't find a suitable option for doing that. I tried thermal vapor deposition but that makes a continuous film, and the gold is no longer a thin film. Is there a way to electrochemically deposit gold nanoparticles on PMMA or any other method? Thanks.
Touhid Bin Anwar
Many years ago (1976), I made gold nanoparticles on various plastics (including PTFE) by simply soaking them in a concentrated solution of chloroauric acid for 7 - 14 days, followed by light washing/rinsing in DI water. For the polymers, there was room temperature reduction to the metal in flowing hydrogen. I could possibly find a few micrographs and some more details. However, this is such a simple procedure that it's well worth trying. The loading isn't predictable in any manner and a range of particle sizes results. The materials could function as (poor) catalysts though. I think that defects on the plastic structure acts as sites for the nucleation and subsequent reduction to the metal. Your statement 'thin monolayer of gold nanoparticles' doesn't make logical sense - one can have a monolayer film but not a layer of particles (as there always is a size distribution).
Touhid Bin Anwar
I have been able to locate my 1976 undergrad project and attach some extracts. I didn't use PMMA but this is quite a reactive polymer in comparison to what I did use (polypropylene, polyethylvinylacetate, Nylon 6, and polystyrene). These plastics were suspended in solutions of chloroplatinic (~ 5%) and chloroauric (~ 6%) acids for 1 week. Samples were washed and dried in vacuo at 330K and heated to 390K to decompose the precursors. I then used SEM, TGA, and DTA to examine the prepared materials. The Au prepared materials were dark mauve indicating colloidal sized Au. I also looked at hydrogen spillover reactions for chemical characterization. There's a micrograph of the prepared Nylon 6 material showing the discrete particles of Au. Seems that the largest particle size produced was about 600 nm. Good luck with your research. Let us know how you get on.
Dr. Alan F Rawle
Thank you very much for your suggestions and the document. This will help. I appreciate it.
Noe Arjona Your suggestion is a good one, but it would need an intermediate conductive layer to connect to. One can buy ITO coated Mylar and I've used this in the past to attempt to make plastic LCD's. I suspect that the end result would be a discontinuous film of Au and not the 'nanoparticles' as the questioner is requiring or requesting.
Noe Arjona
Can you please elaborate on that, I mean can you please provide me some references or protocol for that? I am looking for Gold nanoparticles on the acrylic since I need the plasmonic effects of the nanoparticles, if it is a continuous film (like a golden film of AuNP), I believe I won't have that effect. Thanks.
Another suggestion is a photolithographic process as they use in the semiconductor and display industry. One may be able to create small islands of gold in the sea of plastic...
Alan F Rawle yep you are right, I was thinking on films rather than in nanoparticles
Touhid Bin Anwar I recommend the methodology reported in this work: Article Immobilization of gold nanoparticles on poly(methyl methacry...
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