'Sticky' gold colloids through protection-deprotection and their use in complex metal-organic-inorganic architectures

Exposing bare gold colloids to long-chain dithiols results in their precipi tation owing to cross-linking of the thiol groups with gold surfaces; here, we demonstrate that through the use of a dithiol that has one of the thiol groups protected, we can, through attachment followed by deprotection, pre pare gold colloids with exposed thiol; the uses of such 'sticky' colloids i n creating complex architectures is demonstrated by using them to template the growth of PbS particles.