Facile synthesis of hierarchical gold nanostructures and their catalytic application.

We demonstrate a one-step, surfactant-free method to prepare gold (Au) nanostructures using a synthesized aniline (ANI) derivative N-(3-amidino)-aniline (NAAN) as a reducing agent. By simply mixing NAAN with a Au precursor, raspberry-like Au particles (RSPs) were formed. The presence of Ag(+) resulted in the formation of Au nanoflowers (AuNFs).