Colloidal core–shell materials with ‘spiky’ surfaces assembled from gold nanorods

Abstract

A series of core–shell materials with ‘spiky’ surfaces are prepared through the self-assembly of gold nanorods onto polystyrene microspheres. Loading of the nanorods is finely tuned and the assemblies exhibit surface plasmon resonance properties. The ‘spiky’ surface topography of the assembled structures could serve as a versatile substrate for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy based sensing applications.