Abstract
We report a solid-state synthesis for SiO2 nanowires (NWs) (up to 20 microns in length and from about 40 to about 150 nm in diameter) coated by Au nanoparticles (NPs) (from about 20 to about 80 nm in diameter). This protocol is based on three steps: (1) large area production of very long SiO2 NWs on a Si surface exploiting a simple Au/Si solid-state reaction at high temperature; (2) coating of the SiO2 NWs by a Au film of desired thickness using sputtering depositions; and (3) a thermal process to induce a dewetting process of the Au-film coating the SiO2 NWs to obtain Au NPs on the curved surface of the NWs. The morphology evolution of the SiO2 NWs was followed, in each step, by scanning electron microscopy analyses. They allowed to correlate the evolution of the NPs size with the NWs sizes for different thicknesses of the starting Au-film coating the NWs and different annealing temperatures of the dewetting process. Some theoretical concepts, related to the dewetting process of a film on a curved surface were used to describe the experimental data. The main advantages of the proposed protocols include: (i) simplicity and low-cost (it is based only on sputtering depositions and thermal processes), and (ii) versatility based on the possibility of tuning Au-film thickness and annealing temperature to tune the NPs–NWs sizes ratio. These advantages can make this technique suitable for the mass production of Au NPs-coated SiO2 NWs toward applications in electronic devices, biosensors, and nanoscale optical devices.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alivisatos P (2004) The use of nanocrystals in biological detection. Nat Biotechnol 22:47–52
Assmus T, Balasubramanian K, Burghard M, Kern K, Scolari M, Fu N, Myalitsin A, Mews A (2007) Raman properties of gold nanoparticle-decorated individual carbon nanotubes. Appl Phys Lett 90:173109
Baker AG, Moore DS (2005) Progress in plasmonic engineering of surface-enhanced Raman scattering substrates toward ultra-trace analysis. Anal Bioanal Chem 382:1751–1770
Bettge M, MacLaren S, Burdin S, Wen J-G, Abraham D, Petrov I, Sammann E (2009) Low-temperature vapour–liquid–solid (VLS) growth of vertically aligned silicon oxide nanowires using concurrent ion bombardment. Nanotechnology 20:115607
Bevern CA, Dobrokhotov V, McIlroy DN, Chava S, Abdelrahaman R, Heieren A, Dick J, Barredo W (2008) Gas sensing with mats of gold-nanoparticle decorated GaN nanowires. IEEE Sens J 8:930–935
Bilalbegović G (2006) Electronic properties of silica nanowires. J Phys Condens Matter 18:3829–3836
Callegari G, Calvo A, Hulin JP (2005) Dewetting processes in a cylindrical geometry. Eur Phys J E 16:283–290
Chang P-H, Berman G, Shen CC (1988) Transmission electron-microscopy of gold-silicon interactions on the backside of silicon-wafers. J Appl Phys 63:1473–1477
Choi Y, Johnson JL, Ural A (2009) Patterned growth of silicon oxide nanowires from iron ion implanted SiO2 substrates. Nanotechnology 20:135307
Claessens N, Demoisson F, Dufour T, Mansour A, Felten A, Guillot J, Pireaux J-J, Reniers F (2010) Carbon nanotubes decorated with gold, platinum and rhodium clusters by injection of colloidal solutions into the post-discharge of an RF atmospheric plasma. Nanotechnology 21:385603
de Gennes PG (1985) Wetting: statics and dynamics. Rev Mod Phys 57:827–863
Elechiguerra JL, Manriquez JA, Yacaman MJ (2004) Growth of amorphous SiO2 nanowires on Si using a Pd/Au thin film as a catalyst. Appl Phys A 79:461–467
Elliman RG, Wilkinson AR, Kim T-H, Sekhar PK, Bhansali S (2008a) Optical emission from erbium-doped silica nanowires. J Appl Phys 103:104304
Elliman RG, Wilkinson AR, Kim T-H, Sekhar PK, Bhansali S (2008b) Ion beam synthesis and doping of photonic nanostructures. Nucl Instr Meth Phys Res B 266:1362–1366
Eral HB, Manukyan G, Oh JM (2011) Wetting of a drop on a sphere. Langmuir 27:5340–5346
Evans R, Roth R, Bryk P (2003) Wetting at curved substrates: non-analytic behavior of interfacial properties. Europhys Lett 62:815–821
Galopin E, Barbillat J, Coffinier Y, Szunerits S, Patriarche G, Boukherroub R (2009) Silicon nanowires coated with silver nanostructures as ultrasensitive interfaces for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 1:1396–1403
Gattass RR, Svacha GT, Tong L, Mazur E (2006) Supercontinuum generation in sub-wavelength diameter silica fibers. Opt Express 14:9408–9414
Gelfand MP, Lipowsky R (1987) Wetting on cylinders and spheres. Phys Rev B 36:8725–8735
Georgakilas V, Gournis D, Tzitzios V, Pasquato L, Guldi DM, Prato M (2007) Decorating carbon nanotubes with metal or semiconductor nanoparticles. J Mater Chem 17:2679–2694
Henley SJ, Carrey JD, Silva SRP (2005) Pulsed-laser-induced nanoscale island formation in thin metal-on-oxide films. Phys Rev B 72:195408
Herminghaus S, Brinkmann M, Seeman R (2008) Wetting and Dewetting of Complex Surface Geometries. Annu Rev Mater Res 38:101–121
Holyst R, Poniewierski A (1987) Wetting on a spherical surface. Phys Rev B 36:5628–5630
Hu JQ, Jiang Y, Meng XM, Lee CS, Lee ST (2003) A simple large-scale synthesis of very long aligned silica nanowires. Chem Phys Lett 367:339–343
Hu M, Chen J, Li Z-Y, Au L, Hartland GV, Li X, Marquez M, Xia Y (2006) Gold nanostructures: engineering their plasmonic properties for biomedical applications. Chem Soc Rev 35:1084–1094
Huang T, Meng F, Qi L (2010) Controlled synthesis of dendritic gold nanostructures assisted by supramolecular complexes of surfactant cyclodextrin. Langmuir 26:7582–7589
Hwang J-S, Chen K-Y, Hong S-J, Chen S-W, Syu W-S, Lin TY, Chiang H-P, Chattopadhyay S, Chen K-H, Chen L-C (2010) The preparation of silver nanoparticle decorated silica nanowires on fused quartz as reusable versatile nanostructured surface-enhanced Raman scattering substrates. Nanotechnology 21(2):025502. doi:10.1088/0957-4484/21/2/025502
Iijimma S (1991) Helical microtubules of graphitic carbon. Nature 354:56–58
Indekeu JO (1988) Wetting phenomena on flat and curved surfaces. Nucl Phys B 5A:168–172
Jang S, Lee Y, Cho S, Kim D (2013) Synthesis and characterization of amorphous silicon oxide nanowires embedded with Ni nanoparticles. Mater Chem Phys 137:898–903
Joshi RK, Hu Q, Alvi F, Joshi N, Kumar A (2009) Au decorated zinc oxide nanowires for CO sensing. J Phys Chem C 113:16199–16202
Kang M, Trofin L, Mota MO, Martin CR (2005) Protein capture in silica nanotube membrane 3-D microwell arrays. Anal Chem 77:6243–6249
Kim JH, An HH, Woo HJ, Yoon CS (2008) The growth mechanism for silicon oxide nanowires synthesized from an Au nanoparticle/polyimide/Si thin film stack. Nanotechnology 19:125604
Kohli P, Martin CR (2005) Smart nanotubes for biotechnology. Curr Pharm Biotech 6:35–47
Kumari G, Narayana C (2012) New nano architecture for SERS applications. J Phys Chem Lett 3:1130–1135
Kwon J-Y, Yoon T-S, Kim K-B, Min S-H (2003) Comparison of the agglomeration behavior of Au and Cu films sputter deposited on silicon dioxide. J Appl Phys 93:3270–3278
Lee ST, Zhang YF, Wang N, Tang YH, Bello I, Lee CS (1999) Semiconductor nanowires from oxides. J Mater Res 14:4503–4507
Li SH, Zhu XF, Zhao YP (2004) Carbon-assisted growth of SiOx nanowires. J Phys Chem B 108:17032–17041
Lian J, Wang L, Sun X, Yu Q, Ewing RC (2006) Patterning metallic nanostructures by ion-beam-induced dewetting and rayleigh instability. Nano Lett 6:1047–1052
Lou J, Tong L, Ye Z (2005) Modeling optical wave guiding in metal-coated silica nanowires: nanophotonics, nanostructure, and nanometrology. In: Zhu X (ed) Proceedings of SPIE, vol. 5635, Bellingham, Washington, p 493–501
Marmur A, Krasovitski B (2002) Line tension on curved surfaces: liquid drops on solid micro and nanospheres. Langmuir 18:8919–8923
Mubeen S, Zhang T, Chartuprayoon N, Rheem Y, Mulchandani A, Myung NV, Deshusses MA (2010) Sensitive detection of H2S using gold nanoparticles decorated SWNTs. Anal Chem 82:250–257
Müller-Buschbaum P (2003) Dewetting and pattern formation in thin polymer films as investigated in real and reciprocal space. J Phys: Condens Matter 15:R1549
Oh YJ, Ross CA, Jung YS, Wang Y, Thompson CV (2009) Cobalt nanoparticle arrays made by templated solid-state dewetting. Small 5:860–865
Pan ZW, Dai ZR, Xu L, Lee ST, Wang ZL (2001) Temperature-controlled growth of silicon-based nanostructures by thermal evaporation of SiO powders. J Phys Chem B 105:2507–2514
Pan Z, Dai S, Beach DB, Lowndes DH (2003) Temperature dependence of morphologies of aligned silicon oxide nanowire assemblies catalyzed by molten gallium. Nano Lett 3:1279–1284
Paulose M, Varghese OK, Grimas CA (2003) Synthesis of gold-silica composite nanowires through solid-liquid-solid phase growth. J Nanosci Nanotechnol 3:341–346
Peng K-Q, Wang X, Wu X-L, Lee S-T (2009) Platinum nanoparticle decorated silicon nanowires for efficient solar energy conversion. Nano Lett 9:3704–3709
Placidi E, Fanfoni M, Arciprete F, Patella F, Motta N, Balzarotti A (2000) Scaling law and dynamical exponent in the Volmer–Weber growth mode: silver on GaAs(001)2 × 4. Mater Sci Eng B 69–70:243–246
Qiu T, Zhou Y, Li J, Zhang W, Lang X, Cui T, Chu PK (2009) Hot spots in highly Raman-enhancing silver nanodendrities. J Phys D Appl Phys 42:175403
Rack PD, Guan Y, Fowlkes JD, Melechko AV, Simpson ML (2008) Pulsed laser dewetting of patterned thin metal films: a means of directed assembly. Appl Phys Lett 92:223108
Ruffino F, Canino A, Grimaldi MG, Giannazzo F, Bongiorno C, Roccaforte F, Raineri V (2007) Self-organization of gold nanoclusters on hexagonal SiC and SiO2 surfaces. J Appl Phys 101:064306
Ruffino F, Pugliara A, Carria E, Romano L, Bongiorno C, Spinella C, Grimaldi MG (2012) Novel approach to the fabrication of Au/silica core-shell nanostructures based on nanosecond laser irradiation of thin Au films on Si. Nanotechnology 23(4):045601
Sai VVR, Gangadean D, Niraula I, Jabal JMF, Corti G, McIlroy DN, Aston DE, Branen JR, Hrdlicka PJ (2011) Silica nanosprings coated with noble metal nanoparticles highly active SERS substrates. J Phys Chem C 115:453–459
Sangiorgi R, Muolo ML, Chatain D, Eustathopoulos N (1988) Wettability and work of adhesion of nonreactive liquid metals on silica. J Am Ceram Soc 71:742–748
Sekhar PK, Sambandam SN, Sood DK, Bhansali S (2006) Selective growth of silica nanowires in silicon catalysed by Pt thin film. Nanotechnology 17:4606–4613
Sekhar PK, Ramgir NS, Joshi RK, Bhansali S (2008a) Selective growth of silica nanowires using an Au catalyst for optical recognition of interleukin-10. Nanotechnology 19:245502
Sekhar P, Ramgir NS, Bhansali S (2008b) Metal-decorated silica nanowires: an active surface-enhanced raman substrate for cancer biomarker detection. J Phys Chem C 112:1729–1734
Somani PR, Somani SP, Umeno M (2008) Application of metal nanoparticles decorated carbon nanotubes in photovoltaics. Appl Phys Lett 93:033315
Tong L, Lou J, Mazur E (2004) Single-mode guiding properties of subwavelength-diameter silica and silicon wire waveguides. Opt Express 12:1025–1035
Tong L, Lou J, Ye Z, Svacha GT, Mazur E (2005) Self-modulated taper drawing of silica nanowires. Nanotechnology 16:1445–1448
Tripp RA, Dluhy RA, Zhao Y (2008) Novel nanostructures for SERS biosensing. Nanotoday 3:31–37
Upton PJ, Indekeu JO, Yeomans JM (1989) Wetting on spherical and cylindrical substrates: global phase diagrams. Phys Rev B 40:666–679
Venables JA, Spiller GD, Hanbücken M (1984) Nucleation and growth of thin films. Rep Prog Phys 47:399–459
Wang C-Y, Chan L-H, Xiau D-Q, Lin T-C, Shih H-C (2006) Mechanism of solid-liquid-solid on the silicon oxide nanowire growth. J Vac Sci Technol 24:613–617
Wu X, Dzenis YA (2006) Droplet on a fiber: Geometrical shape and contact angle. Faculty Publications from the Department of Engineering Mechanics (paper 20), Department of at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska–Lincoln. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/engineeringmechanicsfacpub/20. Accessed 2013
Zhang M, Bando Y, Wada L, Kurashima K (1999) Synthesis of nanotubes and nanowires of silicon oxide. J Mater Sci Lett 18:1911–1913
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ruffino, F., Grimaldi, M.G. Au nanoparticles decorated SiO2 nanowires by dewetting on curved surfaces: facile synthesis and nanoparticles–nanowires sizes correlation. J Nanopart Res 15, 1909 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-013-1909-6
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-013-1909-6