Building gold nanonetworks from 2-D to quasi-3-D: thickness depended properties

In this work, an effective approach to control the thickness and porosity of porous gold nanonetworks (PGNs) was demonstrated. The 3-dimensional (3-D) PGNs were accomplished by repeated overlaying of two-dimensional (2-D) monolayer gold nanonetworks which assembled at the pentanol/water interface. The porosity of the PGNs can be improved by increasing the number of layers, which greatly enhances the intralayer and interlayer plasmon coupling and the mass diffusion of the analyte molecules, resulting in an improved sensitivity for SERS and glucose detection. In addition, the current approach also offered an effect method to produce 3-D porous nanostructures through the self-assembly of the isolated nanoparticles (NPs).