Abstract
We demonstrate a convenient fabrication of Au nanourchins (NUs) on Si substrates via a surfactant-assisted galvanic reduction process. This synthetic method not only grows Au NUs on Si in a one-step process but also effectively controls the lengths of the branches on the NUs. The widths are about 100-120 nm and the lengths can be extended from 200 nm to 5 μm by lengthening the growth time.With the advantage of a hierarchical surface structure, Au NUs exhibited excellent electron field emission (FE) performance (turn-on voltage, 6.3 V/μm; β, 1150). In addition, the wetting behavior examination shows that the water contact angle can be as high as 158° on Au NUs after the material is treated by 1-hexadecanethiol. © 2012 The Chemical Society Located in Taipei &Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA,Weinheim.