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Updated: Nov 13, 2025
A Simple Method for the Size Controlled Synthesis of Stable Oligomeric Clusters of Gold Nanoparticles under Ambient Conditions
Published on: February 5, 2016
Compression-Driven Internanocluster Reaction for Synthesis of Unconventional Gold Nanoclusters
Zibao Gan1,2, Nan Xia1,2, Nan Yan1,2
1Key Laboratory of Materials Physics, Anhui Key Laboratory of Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, Institute of Solid State Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, 230031, China.
Abstract:
Can the active kernels in ultrasmall metal nanoparticles (nanoclusters, NCs) react with one another, or can the internanocluster reaction occur when they are in close enough proximity? To resolve this fundamental issue, we investigated the solid-state internanocluster reaction of the most studied gold NC Au25 (SR)18 (SR: thiolate). A novel NC was produced by increasing the pressure to 5 GPa, whose composition was determined to be Au32 (SC2 H4 Ph)24 by mass spectrometry and thermogravimetric analysis. As revealed by single-crystal X-ray crystallography, the structure, a bicuboid Au14 kernel and three pairs of interlocked trimetric staples, has not been reported and endows the NC with obvious photoluminescence. DFT calculations indicate that the staples contribute substantially to the absorption properties. Further experiments reveal the pressure (internanocluster distance) can tune the internanocluster reaction, and the resulting product is not necessarily the thermodynamic product.
