Electrochemical growth of two-dimensional gold nanostructures on a thin polypyrrole film modified ITO electrode.

Two-dimensional gold nanostructures have been fabricated by electrochemical deposition of gold nanoparticles onto indium tin oxide (ITO) glass substrate modified with thin polypyrrole film. By controlling the electrodeposition conditions, gold nanoparticles with dendritic rod, sheet, flower-like (consisting of staggered nanosheets), and pinecone-like structures were generated. The flower-like gold nanoparticles showed high catalytic activity on electrochemical reduction of oxygen, and its activity was measured to be approximately 25 times that of gold pinecones and 10(4) times that of gold nanosheets in terms of gold weight. The pinecone-like nanoparticles can form a compact film with nano-/microscale binary structure like a lotus leaf surface. After modification with n-dodecanethiol, the surface showed superhydrophobic properties with a water contact angle of 153.4 degrees and a tilt angle of 4.4 degrees (5 microL droplet).