Morphology control of the fabricated hydrophobic gold nanostructures in W/O microemulsion under microwave irradiation

The hydrophobic gold nanostructures with different shapes were prepared by using n-butanol situ reduction in cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB)/n-butanol/n-heptane/HAuCl4(aq) W/O microemulsion through microwave dielectric heating. The CTAB-stabilized gold nanoparticles and nanowires with a networked structure obtained through this method were characterized and analyzed by ultraviolet visible spectroscopy (UV-vis), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD), respectively. The morphologies of the hydrophobic gold nanocrystals were successfully controlled through the adjustment of molar ratios of CTAB/HAuCl4 in the reverse microemulsion. The formation mechanism of anisotropic gold nanostructures was discussed, which demonstrated that CTAB played an important role in forming and stabilizing the shape of gold nanowires.