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Updated: Feb 12, 2026

Preparation and Use of Carbonyl-decorated Carbenes in the Activation of White Phosphorus
Published on: October 3, 2014
Light controllable catalytic activity of Au clusters decorated with photochromic molecules
Na Guo1, Kah Meng Yam1,2, Chun Zhang1,2
1Department of Physics and Centre for 2D Advanced Materials, National University of Singapore, 2 Science Drive 3, 117542, Singapore.
Abstract:
By ab initio calculations, we show that when decorated with a photochromic molecule, the catalytic activity of an Au nanocluster can be reversibly controlled by light. The combination of a photochromic thiol-pentacarbonyl azobenzene (TPA) molecule and an Au8 cluster is chosen as a model catalyst. The TPA molecule has two configurations (trans and cis) that can be reversibly converted to each other upon photo-excitation. Our calculations show that when the TPA takes the trans configuration, the combined system (trans-Au8) is an excellent catalyst for CO oxidation. The reaction barrier of the catalyzed CO oxidation is less than 0.4 eV. While, the reaction barrier of CO oxidation catalyzed by cis-Au8 is very high (>2.7 eV), indicating that the catalyst is inactive. These results pave the way for a new class of light controllable nanoscale catalysts.
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