Facile synthesis of morphology- and size-controllable polythiophene/gold composites in aqueous medium

• Published in: Journal of nanoparticle research : an interdisciplinary forum for nanoscale science and technology 2014-11, Vol.16 (11), p.1-11, Article 2702
• Main Authors: Guo, Quanhui, Zou, Shuangshuang, Li, Juan, Li, Dongfeng, Jiao, Hexian, Shi, Jiahua
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemical synthesis methods; Chemistry and Materials Science; Condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties; Condensed matter: structure, mechanical and thermal properties; Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; Electronic structure and electrical properties of surfaces, interfaces, thin films and low-dimensional structures; Electronic structure of nanoscale materials : clusters, nanoparticles, nanotubes, and nanocrystals; Exact sciences and technology; Gold; Inorganic Chemistry; Lasers; Low-dimensional structures (superlattices, quantum well structures, multilayers): structure, and nonelectronic properties; Materials Science; Methods of nanofabrication; Morphology; Nanocrystalline materials; Nanoparticles; Nanoscale materials and structures: fabrication and characterization; Nanostructure; Nanotechnology; Optical Devices; Optics; Oxidants; Oxidizing agents; Photoluminescence; Photonics; Physical Chemistry; Physics; Polythiophene; Research Paper; Scanning electron microscopy; Spectrometry; Spectroscopy; Surfaces and interfaces; thin films and whiskers (structure and nonelectronic properties); Thiophenes; X-ray spectroscopy
• ISSN: 1388-0764; 1572-896X
• DOI: 10.1007/s11051-014-2702-x

Polythiophene (PTh) nanomaterials and polythiophene/gold (PTh-Au) composites were successfully fabricated using chloroaurate acid (HAuCl 4 ) as an oxidant in aqueous medium without using any templates or structure-directing agents. With increasing thiophene (Th) concentration from 0.5 to 50 mM at a fixed molar ratio of thiophene and HAuCl 4 of 3:1, Au@PTh core–shell nanoparticles (~36 nm in diameter) and fibers, AuNPs-modified PTh nanospheres (~270 nm in diameter), flower-like gold microparticles, and gold microsheets were obtained. At a fixed thiophene concentration of 5.0 or 50 mM, the molar ratio of thiophene/HAuCl 4 also affected the morphology and size of PTh–Au composites. The morphology of obtained nanostructures was determined by scanning electron microscope and transmission electron microscope. Furthermore, characterization experiments including FT-IR, UV–Vis spectrometry, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and selected-area electron diffraction were utilized to investigate the chemical and electronic structures of PTh nanostructures and PTh–Au composites. The photoluminescent (PL) properties of PTh–Au composites have also been investigated to clarify the effectiveness of the morphology and composition of composites on the PL emission peaks. In addition, the formation mechanism of PTh nanostructures and PTh–Au composites is also proposed.