Water-soluble gold nanoscale network fabricated by host-guest interaction and self-assembly method

Water-soluble nanoscale network with a good stability was fabricated by cross-linking the gold nanoparticles with β-cyclodextrin and 1,8-octanedithiol inclusion complexes (ICs) through host-guest interaction and self-assembly method. Three-dimensional network with the scale of the porous range from 20 nm to 100 nm was measured by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The fate of the ICs in the nanoscale network was examined by FT-IR. The stability of the ICs linked network was much better than that of 1,8-octanedithiol linked one, which was determined by the damping of the surface plasmon absorbance in UV-Vis spectra. This discovery is of great interest in the fields such as the nano-electronics and biological applications.