Regiospecific synthesis of Au-nanorod/SWCNT/Au-nanorod heterojunctions.

The synthesis of precisely defined nanoscale hybrid materials remains a challenge at the frontier of chemistry and material science. In particular, the assembly of diverse high-aspect ratio one-dimensional materials such as gold nanorods and carbon nanotubes into functional systems is of ever increasing interest due to their electronic and sensing applications. To meet these challenges, methods for interfacing gold nanorods with carbon materials such as single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) in a regio-controlled manner are needed. Herein, we report a method for the regiospecific synthesis of terminally linked gold nanorod-SWCNTs based on a nanotube surface protection strategy. The key to our approach is a SWCNT surface protection procedure allowing for selective functionalization of the SWCNT termini.