Electrodeposition of gold nanoparticles on fluorine-doped tin oxide: Control of particle density and size distribution

Electrodeposition of gold island films of nanometre dimensions (<100 nm) on fluorine-doped tin oxide (FDTO) coated glass is reported. The effect of altering the overpotential of the potentiostatic transient, the use of both nucleation and growth pulses as well as the immobilisation of a spontaneously adsorbed monolayer of, 3-aminopropyldimethylmethoxysilane, is reported. Deposits ranging from isolated particles to dense arrays of nanometre dimension particles have been formed. For example, by using a 10 ms nucleation pulse at −1200 mV followed by growth at 600 mV, a high particle density (46 particles/μm2) and a mean particle size of 36 nm with an RSD of 29% were obtained. Double potential step approaches coupled with interfacial engineering via monolayer formation allows gold nanoparticles to be created on optically transparent FDTO with controlled particle size, density and particle size distribution in a facile, inexpensive, reproducible manner.