Fabrication of nanoporous superstructures through hierarchical self-assembly of nanoparticles

Abstract

Highly-extended self-supporting nanoporous Au and Au–Ag alloy thin films can be successfully prepared by a self-assembly method with metal nanoparticles as starting building blocks. The size, structure, and composition distribution of the synthesized nanoporous films were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and X-ray diffraction. The experimental results revealed that thermal activation and photoinduced attractive force of nanoparticles cause the particles to be assembled at the air–water interface. The pore size of this new nanoporous material can be controlled by varying the nanoparticle size.