Identification of iodine-induced morphological transformation of gold nanorods

The morphological transformation process resulting from the reaction between An nanorods (NRs) and iodine in situ produced from the redox between potassium iodide and copper chloride was monitored by virtue of the transmission electron microscope (TEM) images and the plasmon resonance absorption (PRA) spectra. It was found that the presence of copper chloride or potassium iodide could make the longitudinal PRA band of Au-NRs shift without any change of morphological transformation owing to the change of the refractive index of the medium. Different from that, iodine, which was in situ produced from the redox of potassium iodide and copper chloride, could fuse Au-NRs in the side-by-side mode, resulting in morphological transformation of Au-NRs to sphericity with the characteristics of the decrease of aspect ratio, blue-shift of the longitudinal PAR band, red-shift of transverse PRA band, and broadening of both longitudinal and transverse PRA bands of Au-NRs. The blue-shifted wavelength of the longitudinal PRA band was found to be in proportion to the concentration of copper chloride or potassium iodide when potassium iodide or copper chloride is sufficient, supplying the possibility to detect copper and iodine element in samples with spectrophotometry.