Chiral Ionic Liquid Monolayer-Stabilized Gold Nanoparticles: Synthesis, Self-Assembly, and Application to SERS

Chiral ionic liquid monolayer-stabilized gold nanoparticles were synthesized in a two-phase liquid liquid system and found to self-assemble into ringlike structures at the air/water interface. Control experiments with long-chain ILs revealed that the molecular structure of the CIL significantly affects the formation of the gold nanoparticle ring structures. A possible mechanism based on Marangoni-Benard convection in evaporating droplets was proposed. These gold nanoparticle structures were shown to yield a large SERS enhancement for Rhodamine 6G.