ABSTRACT
The controlled synthesis of gold or silver nanostructures has attracted considerable attention because of their widespread use in catalysis, photonics, electronics, optoelectronics, biological labeling, imaging, sensing, and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) (Chen et al. 2005b; Maier et al. 2001; Taton et al. 2000; Tkachenko et al. 2003; Zhang et al. 2005). Gold and silver nanostructures can be also encapsulated into microgels to produce hybrid materials with thermoresponsive properties or magnetic and optical properties for SERS ultradetection (ContrerasCaceres et al. 2008, 2011). Besides size, shape is an important factor that controls the electronic and optical properties of metal nanoparticles. In particular, the morphological control of asymmetric Au or Ag nanostructures allows tuning the localized surface plasmon resonance (SPR) in the visible and near-infrared regions (Hu et al.
