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Updated: Jan 18, 2026
Synthesis and Characterization of Amphiphilic Gold Nanoparticles
Published on: July 2, 2019
Bidentate Acyclic Diamino Carbene-Stabilized Gold Nanoparticles from Symmetric and Asymmetric Gold(I) Complexes:
Sophie R Thomas1, Tristan T Y Tan2, Guilherme M D M Rubio1
1Institute of Inorganic Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Vienna, Währinger Str. 42, Vienna 1090, Austria.
Abstract:
A series of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) stabilized by bidentate acyclic diamino carbenes (ADCs) were synthesized via the reduction of dimeric gold(I) complexes. The resulting ADC-AuNPs were characterized by NMR spectroscopy, UV-vis spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), revealing nanoparticles with a narrow size distribution and sizes ranging from 1.7 to 3.3 nm. This synthetic approach was extended to an asymmetric dinuclear ADC-gold(I) complex, affording slightly larger AuNPs (∼4 nm) upon reduction. The ADC-AuNPs with shorter linkers exhibited significant catalytic activity for the reduction of 4-nitrophenol, demonstrating a versatile and efficient route to catalytically active gold nanoparticles stabilized by both symmetric and asymmetric ADC ligands.
