Electrospun fabrication of one-dimensional composite nanofibres using colloidal gold/polymer aqueous blends

We successfully demonstrate the facile fabrication of composite polymer/gold nanofibres using the electrospinning technique and show their physical characterization. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) revealed the consistent structural fabrication of uniform nanofibres, and high-resolution Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy (HR-STEM) images, in both bright field (BF-STEM) and dark field (DF-STEM) modes exposed nanoparticle dispersions in the polymer matrix. There is a critical need for establishing processing methods that are effective on the nanoscale yet are applicable to macroscopic processing; the findings presented here demonstrate that the electrospinning process provides a straightforward technique to fabricate arrays of nanoparticles and potentially functional nanoassemblies for future nanodevices.