Single-crystalline gold microplates grown on substrates by solution-phase synthesis

Chemically synthesized single-crystalline gold microplates have been attracting increasing interest because of their potential as high-quality gold films for nanotechnology. We present the growth of tens of nanometers thick and tens of micrometers large single-crystalline gold plates directly on solid substrates by solution-phase synthesis. Compared to microplates deposited on substrates from dispersion phase, substrate-grown plates exhibit significantly higher quality by avoiding severe small-particle contamination and aggregation. Substrate-grown gold plates also open new perspectives to study the growth mechanism via step-growth and observation cycles of a large number of individual plates. Growth models are proposed to interpret the evolution of thickness, area and shape of the plates. It is found that the plate surface remains smooth after regrowth, implying the applicability of regrowth for producing giant plates as well as unique single-crystalline nano-structures.