Preparation of mesoscopic gold rings using particle imprinted templates

Polymer membranes with closely packed two-dimensionally arranged pores have been prepared at the water surface using monolayers of silica colloids as templates. The resulting porous membranes were used as templates for the preparation of gold rings via filling of pores with a solution of gold precursor followed by calcinations. The size of the resulting rings can be easily controlled by tuning the pore size of the templating membrane.