An Extended Protocol for the Synthesis of Monodisperse Gold Nanotriangles

Anisotropic plasmonic nanoparticles have found applications in a wide range of scientific and technological fields, including medicine, energy storage and production, ultrasensitive sensing, catalysis, and photonics. These colloids owe their all-around success in such different scenarios to the development of rapid, scalable, and rational synthetic schemes. Gold nanotriangles (AuNTs), geometrically termed truncated triangular bipyramids, have attracted the attention of the scientific community because of their combination of well-defined crystallography, anisotropic plasmon spatial distribution, sharp tips that favor the generation of high electric fields, atomically flat surfaces, and a wide spectral tunability within the visible and infrared ranges combined with narrow bandwidths of their plasmon resonances. In this context, we previously reported a procedure for the production of AuNTs, based on a seed-mediated approach that guarantees batch-to-batch reproducibility in both size (within 5 nm in edge-length) and extinction spectra (down to 1 nm precision). The protocol involves numerous synthetic steps, and reproducibility requires awareness and familiarity with several details, which are usually learned through practice and repetition and may not always be intuitive on the basis of standard experimental protocols. We provide herein an enhanced protocol with full details and demonstration videos, which we expect will further foster the utilization of this fascinating type of anisotropic nanomaterials by researchers who are less experienced in the preparation and handling of gold colloids.

Automated summary

Anisotropic plasmonic nanoparticles, such as gold nanotriangles, have diverse applications and unique features that attract scientific interest. While the synthetic process for AuNTs is complex and requires attention to detail, the enhanced protocol offers comprehensive guidance to potentially further promote the utilization of this type of nanomaterials.