Selective Cold Welding of Colloidal Gold Nanorods

A new cold nanowelding technique for cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB)-stabilized colloidal nanorods in water is reported. This technique leads to the formation of micrometric nanowires by end-to-end self-organization and welding of nanorods. This cold welding strategy could be generally applicable to colloidal nanoparticles and opens new outlooks for the bottom-up fabrication of nanodevices using colloidal building blocks.