Three-Dimensional Hexagram Gold Nanoparticles: Synthesis and Growth Mechanism

This study explained a procedure to synthesize 3D hexagram gold nanoparticles using a specific morphologically controlled gold precursor reduction. Acetaldehyde acted as the reducing agent along with polyvinyl pyrrolidone as the stabilizing agent with a limited reaction temperature range observed to be near to 25 °C. The resulting special gold nanoparticles were physically characterized and observed to possess an average planar size of 420 nm, an average central thickness of 200 nm, and an average edge thickness of 18 nm. Furthermore, a mechanism model was proposed to describe the oriented growth of gold nanoparticles employing published accounts of the mechanisms involved in the growth of gold hexagonal nanoplates. Moreover, the two major factors that controlled the morphology of synthesized gold nanoparticles were elaborated to provide reference for future fabrication methods of metal nanoparticles in both academia and industry.