Au-induced polyvinylpyrrolidone aggregates with bound water for the highly shape-selective synthesis of silica nanostructures.

Novel Au-induced polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) aggregates with bound water (PVP-water) were created for the highly shape-selective synthesis of distinctive silica nanostructures, such as core-shell spheres, rods, snakes, tubes, capsules, thornlike, and dendritic morphologies. A water/PVP/n-pentanol system was first designed to bind water to PVP, and then Au nanoparticles were used to induce the PVP-water species to aggregate into distinctive soft structures by exploiting the interplay between PVP and gold. This was confirmed by the IR absorption spectra.