Robust Synthesis of Gold Cubic Nanoframes through a Combination of Galvanic Replacement, Gold Deposition, and Silver Dealloying

A facile, robust approach to the synthesis of Au cubic nanoframes is described. The synthesis involves three major steps: 1) preparation of Au-Ag alloyed nanocages using a galvanic replacement reaction between Ag nanocubes and HAuCl4; 2) deposition of thin layers of pure Au onto the surfaces of the nanocages by reducing HAuCl4 with ascorbic acid, and; 3) formation of Au cubic nanoframes through a dealloying process with HAuCl4. The key to the formation of Au cubic nanoframes is to coat the surfaces of the Au-Ag nanocages with sufficiently thick layers of Au before they are dealloyed. The Au layer could prevent the skeleton of a nanocage from being fragmented during the dealloying step. The as-prepared Au cubic nanoframes exhibit tunable localized surface plasmon resonance peaks in the near-infrared region, but with much lower Ag content as compared with the initial Au-Ag nanocages.