An aerosol-seed-assisted hybrid chemical route to synthesize anisotropic bimetallic nanoparticles.

Herein we report the development of anisotropic bimetallic nanoparticles where aerosol gold nanoparticles served as the seeds for the continuous deposition of silver atoms on their surfaces. Initially, aerosol gold nanoparticles were formed by spark discharge and then injected into a silver precursor solution in an impinging device. The gold nanoparticles acted as the seed particles, and catalyzed the reduction of the added silver ions in the presence of ultrasound to yield bimetallic (gold core-silver shell) anisotropic nanoparticles.