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.