Self-assembly of gold nanorods on wrinkled template

Self-assembly of nanoparticles has attracted more attention in the last decade due to their potential applications in many fields, such as sensors, surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate and optical/plasmonic components. Wrinkles, as one kind of common natural surface, are used to be a template/substrate in microfluidic sieves and solar cells. In this work, a wrinkled template with depth of about 200 nm and period of 1.64 μm is used for modulating the self-assembly process of gold nanorods (GNRs) to obtain patterned self-assemblies for potential application. In order to fully reflect the role of the wrinkled template in the self-assembly, the templates are placed uprightly in the GNRs solution to intensify the interplay between the wrinkled surface and nanorods. The self-assembly process is carried out in a climate chamber, where the temperature and humidity can be controlled programmingly to modulate the self-assembly conditions. The experimental results show that for the fixed wrinkled template, an obvious effect on the self-assembly is at the temperature range from 30flC to 50flC. Nematic, curved (mostly are end-to-end) and transition mode can be obtained. According to humidity, GNRs tend to form the nematic fashion in humidity lower than 60%, and the curved fashion in a higher humidity.