ABSTRACT
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 665
van der Waals Forces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 666
Electrostatic Forces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 666
Steric Repulsion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 667
Ordered Colloidal Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 667
3D Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 667
2D Crystals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 669
Use of Silica Coating as a General
Stabilization Technique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 671
Special Optical and Electronic Properties of
Metal and Semiconductor Nanoparticles . . . . . . . . 673
Influence of Silica Coating on the
Optical Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 675
2D and 3D Assemblies of Core-Shell
Particles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 678
Damping of Chemical Reactions through
Silica Coating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 681
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 685
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 685
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 686
In this chapter we discuss a novel approach to the concept
of nanostructuring, which is based on coating metal or
semiconductor nanoparticles with silica, so that the final
morphology involves a silica sphere of the desired size
containing a core placed precisely at its center. Although
such concepts have been proposed before, it has only
recently been possible to synthesize such coated materials
in a reproducible manner. These composite spheres can
then be used as the building blocks of the nanostructured
material. The interest of these systems is due to the
unique optical and electronic properties of nanosized
metal and semiconductor particles.
