Self-assembly of ordered silver nanoparticle chains on triblock copolymer templates

Poly(styrene-b-butadiene-b-styrene) (SBS) triblock copolymer templates which present an in-plane cylinder pattern have been prepared by controlling the solvent evaporation rate. Then silver clusters have been deposited onto the SBS copolymer templates by low energy clusters beam deposition (LECBD) apparatus. The morphology of the sample has been characterized by AFM with tapping-mode. It is shown that silver clusters aggregate into nanoparticle chains onto the template at about 100% coverage. Optical absorption spectra reveal that the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) of silver nanoparticle chains occurs at 550 nm, being a red shift of -85 nm compared to silver nanoclusters deposited on the fused quartz substrate, and the width of SPR peak broadens.