Particle lithography-based patterning of polyelectrolyte template films and their application in fabrication of gold/silver nanoparticle assembly

Abstract The site-specific deposition of polyelectrolytes (PEs) or PE/noble metallic nanoparticle (NP) composites at nanoscale is highly desirable owing to their diverse applications in nanodevices. Herein, we demonstrated a simple yet effective method to fabricate different types of surface micropatterns with PE/noble metallic NP composites via particle lithography. The positively charged PE of poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) and negatively charged NPs of gold/silver (Au/Ag) were used as a model system. The layer-by-layer self-assembly technique was employed as the fabricating strategy. The final nanostructures, consisting of Au NP films with inlaid circular vacant island microarrays or Au NP films with inlaid circular Ag NP island microarrays, were fabricated, respectively. Scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy were used to investigate the structural morphology, microstructure, and the NP growth. Furthermore, the surface-enhanced Raman scattering performance has been obtained based on the as-prepared Au/Ag nanopatterns. Our method displayed an excellent opportunity for the simple and effective production of nanopatterns on the surfaces demonstrating significant advantages in designing novel nanodevices.