Anisotropic particles with different morphologies of silver nanoshell: Synthesis and optical properties

Hydrosols of spindle-shaped composite particles with the core of iron(III) oxyhydroxide and silver shell are synthesized by enlarging metal seeding nanoparticles adsorbed on the surface of the cores in the solution containing silver nitrate and mild reducing agent. It is revealed that the character of the growth of shells on gold seeding particles greatly depends on the type of reducing agent. When using ascorbic acid, seeding particles grow primarily in the direction normal to the core surface due to the blocking of some of the particle faces by ions present in the solution. As a result, the forming shell is characterized by a fairly nonuniform structure. At the same time, when using formaldehyde, the growth of seeding nanoparticles proceeds predominantly in the lateral direction to form first an island-like film, then a continuous thin metal shell on the core surface. It is demonstrated that the position of localized surface plasmon resonance of such structure can be fine tuned to the preset wavelength by controlled variations in the thickness of Ag shell with very small step (up to 1 nm).