‘Sticky’ gold colloids through protection–deprotection and their use in complex metal–organic–inorganic architectures†

Abstract

Exposing bare gold colloids to long-chain dithiols results in their precipitation owing to cross-linking of the thiol groups with gold surfaces; here, we demonstrate that through the use of a dithiol that has one of the thiol groups protected, we can, through attachment followed by deprotection, prepare gold colloids with exposed thiol; the uses of such ‘sticky’ colloids in creating complex architectures is demonstrated by using them to template the growth of PbS particles.