Control of the self-assembly of alkanethiol-coated gold nanoparticles in the solid state

A study of the behavior of nanoparticles in the presence of solvent vapors is presented. Millimeter-scale films of gold nanoparticles, one nanometer thick, are treated with solvent vapors at various temperatures and the behavior of the nanoparticles is tracked over time using transmission electron microscopy. The ultimate goal of this processing is to repair defects such as grains, dislocations, and vacancies in the original superlattice. Additionally, Langmuir-Schaeffer films of gold nanoparticles on water surfaces are subjected to thermal and ultrasonic treatment in an attempt to correct defects in the films, which are then transferred to solid substrates for observation. Unfortunately, none of these approaches is able to reduce the defect concentration in a lattice, although thermal treatment and sonication of Langmuir-Schaeffer nanoparticle films are found to provide a controllable approach to depositing exact double layers of nanoparticles.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2008

Author dc:creator

• Tarasov, Vladimir (Vladimir S.)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Francesco Stellacci.

• Materials Science and Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/43214

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/43214