Synthesis of highly faceted pentagonal- and hexagonal-shaped gold nanoparticles with controlled sizes by sodium dodecyl sulfate.

We report the synthesis of pentagonal- and hexagonal-shaped gold nanoparticles with controlled diameters ranging from 5 to 50 nm. These nanoparticles were prepared by a seeding growth approach. Sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) molecules served as the capping agent to restrict the particle size. In addition, the formation of highly faceted gold nanoparticles may be facilitated by the possibly ineffective capping interactions between the lamellar micellar structures formed by the SDS molecules and the gold nanoparticles. The crystal structure of the highly faceted particles was found to consist of mostly [111] surfaces as particle size increases, as revealed by both TEM and XRD results.