By Rebecca Ingle, Ph.DFeb 5 2024Reviewed by Megan Craig, M.Sc. Download as a PDF for Offline Access. TEM enables comprehensive characterization crucial for understanding gold nanoparticle assembly. For more on the potential of gold nanoparticles in nanodevices, continue reading.An Introduction to Gold Nanoparticles Gold nanoparticles are collections of gold particles where the total diameter of the cluster of gold atoms is on the nanometer length scale – typically 1 – 100 nm.
The high degree of tuneability over the size and shape of gold nanoparticles – gold nanoparticles can be spherical clusters but also rods or more complex structures – makes nanoparticles ideal for use as building blocks in nanoscale assemblies. The nanoparticle assembly patterns that can be formed include two-dimensional lattices through self-assembly5 or more complex patterning through direct-write techniques.
Transmission Electron Microscopy Related StoriesElectron microscopes have been invaluable research tools in the nanoscience community due to their extremely high spatial resolutions.7 Transmission electron microscopy is routinely used for the study of gold nanoparticles and their characterization, including for the visualization of nanoparticles embedded in pore structures that are just 1-2 nm in size.
It is relatively straightforward to combine energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy with a TEM instrument that can be used to add further elemental characterization information to the measurement. With sufficiently high spatial resolution TEM, that elemental information can also be used to identify local concentrations of elements from within a nanoparticle.
While such imaging measurements can be challenging to carry out, the development of TEM variants such as in situ environmental scanning transmission electron microscopy has meant that the nanoparticle starting solutions can be loaded into the instrument before the growth processes are triggered somehow.