We are trying to have a better control of the attachment of metal nanospheres to the different locations of Au nanoplates via ligand-exchange reactions. Depend on the binding locations and the linker molecule the coupled nanostructures will provide different optical properties. This research provides a better understanding of the effect of binding location and particle-particle coupling location on the optical properties of the metal nanostructures for optical-based sensing and plasmonics applications.

Selective attachment of Au nanoparticles to the edges of Au nanoplate, 4-aminothiophenol as the linker.