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Structure and microstructure of near infrared-absorbing Au–Au2S nanoparticles

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Abstract

Near infrared (NIR) absorbing nanoparticles synthesized by the reduction of HAuCl4 with Na2S exhibited absorption bands at ∼530 nm, and in the NIR region of 650–1100 nm. The NIR optical properties were not found to be related to the earlier proposed Au2S–Au core-shell microstructure in previous studies. From a detailed study of the structure and microstructure of as-synthesized particles in this work, S-containing, Au-rich, multiply-twinned nanoparticles were found to exhibit NIR absorption. They consisted of amorphous AuxS (where x = 2), mostly well mixed within crystalline Au, with a small degree of surface segregation of S. Therefore, NIR absorption was likely due to interfacial effects on particle polarization from the introduction of AuxS into Au particles, and not the dielectric confinement of plasmons associated with a core-shell microstructure.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Singapore-Massachusetts Institute of Technology Alliance and National University of Singapore (NUS) Academic Research Grant. G.M. Chow acknowledges the support of the United States Office of Naval Research. The authors thank Changhai Wang, Xingyu Gao, Chengjun Sun, and Giuseppe Faraci for assistance with data collection at the synchrotron beam lines. The support of beam time from National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center (Taiwan), Singapore Synchrotron Light Source, and European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (Grenoble, France) is acknowledged. The authors thank Binghai Liu for assistance in TEM.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Molecular Engineering of Biological and Chemical Systems, Singapore-Massachusetts Institute of Technology Alliance, Singapore, 117576, Singapore

    Mei Chee Tan, Jackie Y. Ying & Gan Moog Chow

  2. Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02139-4307, USA

    Jackie Y. Ying

  3. Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The Nanos, Singapore, 138669

    Jackie Y. Ying

  4. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 117574, Singapore

    Gan Moog Chow

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  1. Mei Chee Tan
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Correspondence to Gan Moog Chow.

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Tan, M.C., Ying, J.Y. & Chow, G.M. Structure and microstructure of near infrared-absorbing Au–Au2S nanoparticles. Journal of Materials Research 22, 2531–2538 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2007.0314

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