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Updated: Apr 28, 2026
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The Synthesis of [Sn10SiSiMe334]2- Using a Metastable SnI Halide Solution Synthesized via a Co-condensation Technique
Published on: November 28, 2016
Emergence of metallicity in silver clusters in the 150 atom regime: a study of differently sized silver clusters
Indranath Chakraborty1, Jayanthi Erusappan, Anuradha Govindarajan
1DST Unit of Nanoscience (DST UNS) and Thematic Unit of Excellence (TUE), Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600 036, India. pradeep@iitm.ac.in.
Abstract:
We report the systematic appearance of a plasmon-like optical absorption feature in silver clusters protected with 2-phenylethanethiol (PET), 4-flurothiophenol (4-FTP) and (4-(t-butyl)benzenethiol (BBS) as a function of cluster size. A wide range of clusters, namely, Ag₄₄(4-FTP)₃₀, Ag₅₅(PET)₃₁, ∼Ag₇₅(PET)₄₀, ∼Ag₁₁₄(PET)₄₆, Ag₁₅₂(PET)₆₀, ∼Ag₂₀₂(BBS)₇₀, ∼Ag₄₂₃(PET)₁₀₅, and ∼Ag₅₃₀(PET)₁₀₀ were prepared. The UV/Vis spectra show multiple features up to ∼Ag₁₁₄; and thereafter, from Ag₁₅₂ onwards, the plasmonic feature corresponding to a single peak at ∼460 nm evolves, which points to the emergence of metallicity in clusters composed of ∼150 metal atoms. A minor blue shift in the plasmonic peak was observed as cluster sizes increased and merged with the spectrum of plasmonic nanoparticles of 4.8 nm diameter protected with PET. Clusters with different ligands, such as 4-FTP and BBS, also show this behavior, which suggests that the 'emergence of metallicity' is independent of the functionality of the thiol ligand.
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