The effect of pH value on the formation of gold nanoshells

The effect of the pH value of gold ion plating (PCG) solution on the growth of gold nanoshells with about 100-nm silica cores and 15-nm gold shells was systematically investigated by dynamic light scattering, UV–Vis spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. The results showed that in PCG solutions, the rapid formation of monomers which intensively influenced by the reducibility of formaldehyde contributed to the growth of gold nanoshells. The reducibility of formaldehyde increased following the increasing pH value from 4.70 to 11.71. Thus at high pH value, it was easy to fabricate the complete gold nanoshells (except of the Cannizzaro reaction of formaldehyde at high pH value). Furthermore, we found that chloride ions also influenced the surface morphology of gold nanoshells by Ostwald ripening process through the Au–Cl complex.