Patent ID: 8247325

Claim:
A method for growing noble metal nanoplates on a semiconductor substrate to form a metal nanostructure-semiconductor composite, comprising: providing a semiconductor substrate having an associated semiconductor valence energy band level; providing a volume of an aqueous noble metal salt solution, the aqueous noble metal salt solution consisting of noble metal precursor ions in water; reacting the aqueous noble metal salt solution by direct contact with the semiconductor substrate to form noble metal nuclei on the semiconductor substrate and an oxide layer on the semiconductor substrate where there are not the noble metal nuclei; and increasing the concentration of the noble metal salt solution, and the noble metal precursor injecting holes into the semiconductor substrate via the noble metal nuclei to form a second oxide layer on the semiconductor substrate thereby thickening the oxide layer on the substrate and to reduce the noble metal precursor ions to form a plurality of noble metal nanoparticles protruding from the surface of the semiconductor substrate; wherein a reduction potential of a metal ion/metal pair of the noble metal precursors ions is greater than the valence band energy of the semiconductor; and wherein the oxide layer formed while forming the noble metal nuclei prevent further direct interaction between the noble metal precursor ions and the semiconductor substrate, which prevents forming more of the noble metal nuclei and enables controlled growth of the noble metal nuclei from the noble metal precursor ions, and thereby control formation of the nanoplates.