## 3 Results and Discussion
This bar chart for the size of the nanoplate particles _vs._ the number of measurements for each size was determined from DLS measurements by determining the frequency of  
Figure 2: Triangular silver nanoplate solution (**a**) TEM image; the inset picture shows the lattice spacing of triangular nanoplates and (**b**) size distribution from dynamic light scattering (DLS) measurements. occurrence of each particle size (based on volume) over 27 scans of the same colloidal silver nanoplate suspension. It was found that the size of the nanoplates varied. This is due to the fact that DLS measured two length parameters: thickness and edge length of the triangular nanoplate structure. The average edge length of nanoplates was determined by DLS to be 25 \(\pm\) 3 nm, while the average plate thickness was found to be 9 \(\pm\) 1 nm. These measurements agreed closely with TEM results. Triangular silver nanoplate thin films on a silicon surface were grown via a self-assembly technique. Prior to exposing the nanoplate solution to the surface, the clean silicon surface was functionalized by immersing the surface in 5% 3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane (APTMS) solution for 1 h. The APTMS film formed on surface was used to promote adhesion between the substrate and the silver nanoplates. APTMS has been used as a good coupling agent for the modification of silica surfaces to attach silver triangular nanoplates due to the robust interaction between the amine group and metal nanoparticles as reported by [PERSON] [36]. As a result, a silver nanoplate film was successfully deposited on the silicon surface after 15 min of exposure time, as shown in the FESEM image in Figure 3a. The FESEM image clearly proves that the film of silver nanoplates was starting to grow on the surface after just 15 min of exposure to the nanoplate solution, with a high yield of triangular shapes due to the presence of the silane molecule. It should be noted that both AFM and FESEM imaging of the untreated and treated silicon substrates were featureless (please refer to supplementary material). Additionally, similar imaging showed that exposure of the nanoplate solution to an untreated substrate lead to no deposition. Hence, the silane molecule on the surface did assist the attachment of the silver nanoplates because there is no distribution of nanoplates on the surface without the APTMS layer. The silver nanoparticles were electrostatically attached to aminosilane molecules due to the silver in the solution interacting with the APTMS-covered silicon surface [37,38]. The image also reveals that the triangular nanoplates are well attached to the silicon surface and the nanoplates are not agglomerated. The average edge length of triangular nanoplates is 25.05 \(\pm\) 7.37 nm, which was calculated using image J software. The different edge lengths of triangular nanoplates determined through SEM images  
Figure 3: **(a)** FESEM image of nanoplate film on silicon surface after 15 min of exposure; **(b)** Bar chart for edge length of triangular nanoplates for 15 min growth on surface. The edge length of 25 means the size of nanoplates was from 20 to 30 nm, 35 from 30 to 40 nm, and 45 from 40 to 50 nm. are plotted in Figure 3b. The results found that the edge length of 25 nm was the most common size observed on the surface and agreed with TEM and DLS analysis. The growth of the nanoplate film on the surface was studied for different exposure times. Freshly silanized surfaces were immersed for 30 min, 1 h, 2 h, 8 h, 14 h, and 22 h in the nanoplate solution. Figure 4 shows the FESEM images of the nanoplate thin film on the surface after various exposure times. It was found that the density of nanoplates on the surface increased with increasing exposure time. From these coverage examples, it is clear that the attachment of APTMS on the surface ultimately enhanced the growth of nanoplates on the surface. The triangular nanoplate film grew with high affinity for the all exposure times.