Silver nanoparticle self-organization into dendritic fractals

Organic reagent assisted self assembly of shaped silver nanoparticles into structured linear arrays and dendritic patterns, is reported. Controlled synthesis of nanoparticle shape is used to prepare color tunable silver nanoparticles. Treatment of the silver nanoparticles with selected organic reagents at certain concentrations enabled the determination of the type of structure or pattern generated as well as control over the length scale over which the assembly is generated. Polyacrylamide treatment of the silver nanoparticles was used to produce linear and branched arrays on the nanometer to micron scale, whereas treatment with thiol compounds enabled the production of dendritic patterns with dimensions ranging from microns to millimeters.