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Updated: Feb 24, 2026
Synthesis of Near-Infrared Emitting Gold Nanoclusters for Biological Applications
Published on: March 22, 2020
Crystallization-induced emission enhancement: A novel fluorescent Au-Ag bimetallic nanocluster with precise atomic
Tao Chen1,2, Sha Yang1,2, Jinsong Chai1,2
1Department of Chemistry and Centre for Atomic Engineering of Advanced Materials, Anhui University, Hefei, Anhui 230601, P. R. China.
Abstract:
We report the first noble metal nanocluster with a formula of Au4Ag13(DPPM)3(SR)9 exhibiting crystallization-induced emission enhancement (CIEE), where DPPM denotes bis(diphenylphosphino)methane and HSR denotes 2,5-dimethylbenzenethiol. The precise atomic structure is determined by x-ray crystallography. The crystalline state of Au4Ag13 shows strong luminescence at 695 nm, in striking contrast to the weak emission of the amorphous state and hardly any emission in solution phase. The structural analysis and the density functional theory calculations imply that the compact C-H⋯π interactions significantly restrict the intramolecular rotations and vibrations and thus considerably enhance the radiative transitions in the crystalline state. Because the noncovalent interactions can be easily modulated via varying the chemical environments, the CIEE phenomenon might represent a general strategy to amplify the fluorescence from weakly (or even non-) emissive nanoclusters.
