Thiacrownether-mediated Size-controlled Assembly of Gold Nanoparticles.

Thiacrownether-mediated self-assembly of Au nanoparticles produced a larger sized aggregation of which grain size was controlled by the relative concentration and the structure of thiacrownethers. The thiacrownethers at the surface of self-assembled nanoparticles have further complexation ability to some metal ions, which can be used to build new metal/semiconductor--metal ion nanocomposite materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]