Single-particle study: effects of mercury amalgamation on morphological and spectral changes in anisotropic gold nanorods

Abstract

This study investigated the amalgamation of gold nanorods (AuNRs) exposed to Hg(II) solution and its effects on structural and spectral changes in single AuNRs using scanning electron microscopy and total internal reflection scattering microscopy. First, Hg adsorption on AuNR surfaces formed AuNRs@Hg core–shell structures. Afterwards, they transformed to AuNRs@AuHg alloy shell structures in air due to the slow inward diffusion of Hg over time. The aspect ratio (AR) of the AuNRs@AuHg formed by the amalgamation was significantly decreased compared to that of bare AuNRs. Furthermore, the Hg coating on AuNRs induced a dramatic blue shift of the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) peak and linewidth broadening, followed by a red shift and linewidth narrowing of the LSPR peak due to inward diffusion of Hg into the AuNR core. Finally, we investigated the effects of oxygen plasma treatment on the structural changes of AuNRs@AuHg and found that their AR was a decreasing function of the plasma treatment time. More notably, a major structural change was observed 5 min after the plasma treatment. Therefore, fundamental information on the relationship among amalgamation process, plasma treatment time, structural change, and LSPR peak and linewidth is provided at the single-particle level.