A template-confined fabrication of controllable gold nanoparticles based on the two-dimensional nanostructure of macrocyclesElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Materials, synthetic experimental details, formation of AuNPs on surface, measurements, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, MALDI-TOF MS of intermediate compounds and 6Y, XPS spectra of N 1s and C 1s. See DOI: 10.1039/c5cc01032b

An amine-substituted macrocycle 6Y , a rigid hexagonal ring, self-assembled into network architecture on the surface, which could be used as a molecular template to directly fabricate gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) with narrow size distribution (2.2 ± 0.1 nm). This work demonstrated a new pathway for the formation of controllable AuNPs on the surface. An amine-substituted macrocycle 6Y , a rigid hexagonal ring, self-assembled into a network architecture on the surface, which could be used as a molecular template to directly fabricate gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) with narrow size distribution (2.2 ± 0.1 nm).