Black Gold: Plasmonic Colloidosomes with Broadband Absorption Self-Assembled from Monodispersed Gold Nanospheres by Using a Reverse Emulsion System.

A facile approach for the fabrication of novel black plasmonic colloidosomes assembled from Au nanospheres is developed by an emulsion-templating strategy. This self-assembly process is based on a new reverse water-in-1-butanol emulsion system, in which the water emulsion droplets can dissolve into 1-butanol (oil) phase at an appropriate rate. These Au colloidosomes possess hexagonal close-packed multilayer shells and show a low reflectivity and intense broadband absorption owing to the strong interparticle plasmonic coupling, which is further investigated by a finite-difference time-domain method. This method is universal and is suitable for self-assembly of different noble-metal nanoparticles into different colloidosomes. These colloidosomes have important applications in photothermal therapy, biosensors, and drug delivery.