Abstract: Gold crystals are able to self-assemble into multipod-like nanoparticles through reducing HAuCl4 by sodium citrate in the soft template composed of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)-polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) clusters assisted by microwave irradiation. TEM image displayed directly that the reduced products possessed multipod-like morphology with equivalent diameter around 50 nm, and electron diffraction (ED) pattern indicated that the gold crystals were polycrystalline. XRD pattern suggested that the multipod-like nanoparticles were self-assembled into tiny pure gold crystals with diameter about 12.7 nm, which were grown preferentially along (111) lattice plane. The cluster of SDS-PVP had great influence on the size and shape of gold nanoparticles. At a fixed level of PVP, as the concentration of SDS increased, the shape of gold nanoparticles changed from sphere to multipod, and UV-Vis absorption spectrum of gold nanoparticles showed that absorption bands at 800 nm became stronger. The preferred multipod-like gold nanoparticles could be obtained easily and quickly by controlling the composition of the soft template of SDS-PVP clusters.

Key words: Multipod-like, Gold nanoparticle, Soft template, SDS, PVP