Optical property of nanocomposite of mesoporous silica thin films incorporated with gold nanoparticles

Amino-functionalized mesoporous silica thin films (MTFs) are produced using surface active agent F127, and then gold nanoparticles are introduced into the pore channels to prepare the Au/SiO(2) nanocomposite. After assembling the gold, the amino-functionalized MTF undergoes some shrinkage but remains a periodic structure as demonstrated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns. The nanocomposite shows an acute characteristic diffraction peak assigned to (111) plane of the face-centered-cubic structure of gold, indicating that gold nanoparticles crystallize well and grow in a preferred orientation in the pore channels. The surface plasma resonance (SPR) absorption peak near 570 nm undergoes a red-shift accompanied by a strengthening of intensity when HAuCl(4) is used to react with the amino groups on the internal pore surfaces for 4, 6, and 8 h. The simulative results are consistent with the experimental ones shows that the absorption property of the Au/SiO(2) nanocomposite is influenced by the dipping time, which affects the size and volume fraction of embedded gold nanoparticles.