Sintering-assisted patterning of monolayer gold nanoparticle films to circular nanowire networks for surface-enhanced Raman scattering

This paper describes a method for patterning of continuous monolayer gold nanoparticle films to form circular morphology at the pentanol-water interface. Time-dependent coalescence process indicates that the sintering between nanoparticles is the main reason for inducing the shrinking and splitting of the continuous monolayer nanofilm to circular morphology. Such a shrinking process generates a large number of "nanogaps" on circular networks, which leads to about a ten-fold enhancement of Raman signals over that initial formed continuous nanofilm. The approach of sintering improved reconstructing the continuous nanofilm is important for the design of 2D nanostructures with some of excellent properties through self-assembly at interface.