Nanocomposites Based on Spin-Crossover Nanoparticles and Silica-Coated Gold Nanorods: A Nonlinear Optical Study

Eleni Zygouri; Aristeidis Stathis; Stelios Couris; Vassilis Tangoulis

doi:10.3390/molecules28104200

Nanocomposites Based on Spin-Crossover Nanoparticles and Silica-Coated Gold Nanorods: A Nonlinear Optical Study

Molecules. 2023 May 19;28(10):4200. doi: 10.3390/molecules28104200.

Authors

Eleni Zygouri¹, Aristeidis Stathis^{2

3}, Stelios Couris^{2

3}, Vassilis Tangoulis¹

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Inorganic Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of Patras, 26504 Patras, Greece.
² Department of Physics, University of Patras, 26504 Patras, Greece.
³ Institute of Chemical Engineering Sciences (ICE-HT), Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas (FORTH), 26504 Patras, Greece.

Abstract

A nanocomposite based on silica-coated AuNRs with the aminated silica-covered spin-crossover nanoparticles (SCO NPs) of the 1D iron(II) coordination polymer with the formula [Fe(Htrz)₂(trz)](BF₄) is presented. For the synthesis of the SCO NPs, the reverse micelle method was used, while the gold nanorods (AuNRs) were prepared with the aspect ratio AR = 6.0 using the seeded-growth method and a binary surfactant mixture composed of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and sodium oleate (NaOL). The final nanocomposite was prepared using the heteroaggregation method of combining different amounts of SCO NPs with the AuNRs. The nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of the hybrid AuNRs coated with different amounts of SCO NPs were studied in detail by means of the Z-scan technique, revealing that the third-order NLO properties of the AuNRs@SCO are dependent on the amount of SCO NPs grafted onto them. However, due to the resonant nature of the excitation, SCO-induced NLO switching was not observed.

Keywords: gold nanorods; nonlinear optics; spin-crossover nanoparticle.

Grants and funding

This research received no external funding.