Self-assembling behavior and optical properties of triangular silver nanoplates

Triangular silver nanoplates with its border size of 100 +/- 10nm and thickness of 30nm were synthesized by a chemical method. These triangular silver nanoplates were characterized by TEM, UV-Vis spectroscopy and x-rays diffraction analysis. Results obtained showed that these triangular silver nanoplates are perfect with sharp corners and self-assembled into two-dimensional ordered monolayer on the carbon-covered copper grid due to the adsorption of organic molecules in between these silver nanoplates. The well-aligned silver film on Si ( 100 ) substrate showed strong surface-enhanced Raman scattering for pyridine molecules.