[srsuren]

Hi there,

I’m a materials person and not very good with chemistry. So i need your help. I have a gold alcosol suspended in ethanol. The particles are 15nm in diameter, and contains 0.1 weight percent of gold in the solution. The particles have a PVP layer as well.
I’m working with droplets from this solution. But after deposition the particles wont self assemble with each other. I want the particles to self assemble to the middle of the droplet. Can this be done? Anyone knows any solutions I can add so that the particles will self assembles as the solvent evaporates??

You response would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Suren 

[Mitch]

How big are you looking for?

[srsuren]

I would like to assemble all the particles together in a droplet...size doesnt matter as long as they assemble together 

[Ryan]

Is PVP the only stabilizer for the particles?  Often times the stabilizer will actually inhibit assembly, as their purpose to stop aggregation.  You create particles of a desired size by adding the stabilizer after a given time period, or in the case of a polymer stabilizer such as PVP, the polymer governs the actual particle size.  If you want gold particles to aggregate (assemble) you might want to try some type of chemical linker, such as a dithiol.

edit: spelling