Figure 1.

TEM images of (a) the Au cores prior to polymer encapsulation and of (b) the Au-core/PNIPAM-shell particles. The shell is visible as the dark gray corona around the gold cores. (c) AFM height image of a monolayer of the core/shell particles deposited on glass by spin-coating. (d) Depiction of the gradient fabrication: First the core/shell particles were synthesized. Second the particles were deposited on glass substrate via spin-coating. In the last step the substrate was mounted on a dip coater and immersed in an Au growth solution and pulled out.