Facile synthesis of gold nanoplates by thermally reducing AuCl4− with aniline

We herein report a one-step, wet-chemical approach to synthesizing gold nanoplates in large quantities via the AuCl4− thermal reduction process by aniline, without introducing additional capping agent or surfactant. It is found that the reduction kinetics of AuCl4− is greatly altered by varying the initial molar ratio of aniline to AuCl4−. Moreover, further investigation reveals that the in-situ formed polyaniline could serve effectively as a capping agent to preferably adsorb the {1 1 1} facets of gold crystals during a slow reduction process, directing the formation of gold nanoplates.