Digestive ripening for self-assembly of thiol-capped gold nanoparticles: the effects of adding dodecanethiol and reflux-heating

- Digestive ripening is used to obtain a mono-dispersed gold nanoparticle system.
- The critical amount of the dodecanethiol is required to obtain gold nanoparticles.
- Reflux heating enhances the transition of poly- to mono-dispersed nanoparticles.
- Gold nanoparticles have the tendency to form nanostructures of six-fold symmetry.