Asymmetric silver "nanocarrot" structures: solution synthesis and their asymmetric plasmonic resonances

J Am Chem Soc. 2013 Jul 3;135(26):9616-9. doi: 10.1021/ja404345s. Epub 2013 Jun 19.

Abstract

Here we report the wet-chemical synthesis of asymmetric one-dimensional (1D) silver "nanocarrot" structures that exhibit mixed twins and stacking fault domains along the <111> direction. Oriented attachment is the dominant mechanism for anisotropic growth. Multipolar plasmon resonances up to fourth order were measured by optical extinction spectroscopy and electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) and are in agreement with theoretical calculations. Compared with those of symmetric 1D nanostructures of similar length, the dipole modes of the nanocarrots show a clear red shift, and the EELS maps show an asymmetric distribution of the resonant plasmonic fields and a compression of the resonance node spacing toward the tail. In addition, increasing the length of the nanocarrots causes an increase in the intensity and a steady red shift of the longitudinal surface plasmon resonance peaks. The silver nanocarrots also show very high sensitivity to the refractive index of their environment (890 ± 87 nm per refractive index unit).

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Metal Nanoparticles / chemistry*
  • Molecular Structure
  • Particle Size
  • Silver / chemistry*
  • Solutions
  • Surface Plasmon Resonance
  • Surface Properties

Substances

  • Solutions
  • Silver