Self assembled gold nanoparticles wires by discontinuous vertical colloidal deposition

In this work we report a simple one step method for assembling spherical nanoparticles into wires without need for lithographic templating. It is effective for a variety of conducting and no conducting nanoparticles and substrates and the only materiel requirement is that the nanoparticles be placed in a colloidal suspension that is wettable on the desired substrate. The shape of the meniscus defines the wire's geometry. We report the synthesis and physical properties of gold nanoparticles wires of several millimeters long and by a few micrometers wide. As we demonstrate here, the technique is fast and easily controlled and can be used to make integrated nanoparticles wire arrays.