Hyperbranched polyglycidol-assisted green approach to the fabrication of morphology-tunable gold architectures

Biocompatible hyperbranched polyglycidol (HBP) has been demonstrated to be an effective reducing and stabilizing agent for the fabrication of gold architectures with easily tuned morphologies, including nanospheres and hexagonal and triangular nanoplates. All the fabrication reactions are conducted in water at room temperature in the absence of any additional reducing agents and surfactants; thus, they are green and energy-efficient processes. Morphological, spectral, and structural properties associated with the formation processes of gold nanoplates have been systematically examined, and a plausible formation mechanism of such nanoplates was also proposed. Additionally, the HBP-stabilized gold nanoplates provide excellent surface-enhanced Raman scattering substrates for the detection of HBP molecules, which can be extended to the analysis of other organic species.