Thermal-driven attachment of gold nanoparticles prepared with ascorbic acid onto indium tin oxide surfaces

Thermal-driven attachment of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), of which size was less than 50 nm, onto the surfaces of indium tin oxide (ITO) is reported as a new phenomenon. This was permitted by preparing AuNPs via the reduction of hydrogen tetrachloroaurate (HAuCl₄) with ascorbic acid (AA). While the AuNPs prepared via the AA reduction sparsely attached on the surface of ITO even at room temperature, a heat-up treatment at ca. 75 °C caused denser attachment of AuNPs on ITO surfaces. The attached density and the homogeneity after the thermal treatment were better than those of AuNP/ITO prepared using 3-aminopropyl-trimethoxysilane linker molecules. The denser attachment was observed similarly both by the immersion of ITO samples after the preparations of AuNPs by AA and by the in situ preparation of AuNPs with AA together with ITO samples. Thus, it is considered that the thermal-driven attachment of AuNPs would occur after the formation of AuNPs in the aqueous solutions, not via the growth of AuNPs on ITO surfaces. The preparation of AuNPs with AA would be a key for the thermal-driven attachment because the same attachments were not observed for AuNPs prepared with citrate ions or commercially available tannic acid-capped AuNPs.