Deposition of gold nanoparticles from colloid on TiO2 surface.

In this paper, experimental results are presented on the deposition of colloidal gold nanoparticles on the surfaces of TiO2 prepared on silicon/silicon dioxide. Important procedures, such as titanium dioxide surface hydrophilization as well as functionalization by an organosilane coupling agent (3-aminopropyl) trimethoxysilane and (3-mercaptopropyl) trimethoxysi-lane were investigated in order to obtain a metal oxide surface with the most convenient properties for immobilization of gold nanoparticles having a dense and uniform distribution. TiO2 nanotips prepared by reactive ion etching of oxide surface covered with self-mask gold nanoparticles are demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]