Solution synthesis of anisotropic gold microcrystals.

Wet chemistry methods have proven to be successful for the synthesis of nanocrystals. However, the size and shape control is often lost when the dimensions of the particles exceed several hundred nanometers. Therefore, a synthetic transformation of nano- to microcrystals in solution remains to be a challenge. Here we report a very efficient chemical synthesis of anisotropic microcrystals of gold and the set of experimental conditions that enables precise control over their size and aspect ratio.