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Changing shapes: Metastable spherical aggregates of gold nanoparticles undergo a one-to-one, thermally induced transformation into heterodimers comprising connected plate and spherical domains. By controlling the reaction time, it is possible to isolate a variety of structures differing in the relative sizes of the domains and in the overall optical properties (see picture).
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Klajn et al. (2007) studied this question.
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