A large-scaled 2D array of alkanethiol-encapsulated gold particles fabricated using Langmuir-Blodgett technique

Assembly of metal nano-particles in ordered two-dimensional (2D) or three-dimensional (3D) arrays is believed capable of providing new materials not only for electronic engineering but also for basic studies, therefor has attracted a lot of research attention. In our previous work, an approach to fabrication of 2D array of alkanethiol-encapsulated gold particles was developed utilizing a self-organized process. However it is hard to fabricate a large-scaled perfect monolayer and well-controlled multilayer structures using this method. For this reason, in the present work, Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) technique was used to fabricate a large-scaled monolayer of nanoscaled gold particles. Comparing to other reports about LB films of gold particles, we got a much larger, higher-ordered 2D nanostructure.