ABSTRACT
The scientic and technological properties of gold nanoparticles and nanoscale coatings have been the subject of much research in the last decade. There are several stand-alone reviews of these topics in the literature (see, for example, Daniel and Astruc [1] and Glomm [2]), while a whole issue of Chemical Society Reviews was recently targeted at these topics [3], and there is at least one other recent text devoted to gold. So why another review here? The reason is that the sources mentioned
Introduction: Why Gold? ............................................................................................................... 369 Nanoscale Particles and Films ....................................................................................................... 370
Gold Nanospheres ..................................................................................................................... 370 Gold Nanorods .......................................................................................................................... 371 Nanoshells and Semishells ........................................................................................................ 373 Other Particle Shapes ................................................................................................................ 374 Mesoporous Gold Sponges ....................................................................................................... 374 Thin Films ................................................................................................................................. 374
Industrial Applications ................................................................................................................... 376 Pigments and Colorants............................................................................................................. 376 Metallic Glazes and Sinter Inks ................................................................................................ 376 Spectrally Selective Coatings .................................................................................................... 376 High-Density Data Storage ....................................................................................................... 378 Optoelectronic Devices and Switching ..................................................................................... 379 Catalysis .................................................................................................................................... 379
Sensor and Analytical Applications ...............................................................................................380 Colorimetric Sensors .................................................................................................................380 Refractometric Sensors .............................................................................................................380 Electrochemical and Other Sensors .......................................................................................... 382 Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy ................................................................................... 382 Use of Gold in Medical Diagnostics .........................................................................................384
