Abstract
The preparation of gold nanoparticles has attracted much attention and has been intensively investigated in recent years because of their unique shape-dependent optical, catalytic, electrical and thermal properties. Recently, we have developed an efficient approach to morphology control of gold nanoparticles with icosahedrons on the basis of chemical reduction using ascorbic acid in the presence of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) with addition of sodium hydroxide (NaOH). Detailed investigation on their formation process indicated that the growth of the icosahedrons was, in fact, a result of temperature change in the hydrothermal method. Besides gold icosahedrons, other well-crystallized gold nanoparticles including truncated triangles, rods, and wires were also obtained by adjusting synthesis parameters, in particular reaction temperature.
