Fabrication of Au Nanoparticles Decorated WO3 Nanorods by Magnetron Sputtering

Abstract

The gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) decorated tungsten oxide nanorods (WO3 NR) arrays have been fabricated by physical vapor deposition method. Firstly, the WO3 NR arrays were fabricated by dc reactive magnetron sputtering with glancing angle deposition technique. The Au NPs of different sizes and morphology were uniformly sputtered on WO3 NR arrays via normal dc magnetron sputtering. The influence of Au deposition operated pressure on the structure and morphology of the resulting Au NPs on WO3 NR arrays were systematically studied. Crystal structure, morphologies and element analysis of as prepared samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, field-emission scanning electron microscopy, and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The result indicated that the Au nanoparticles prepared at low operated pressure were mostly located near the top of the WO3 nanorods.