AsianScientist (Sep. 16, 2016) – Chinese researchers have synthesized and characterized two previously unknown, large silver nanoclusters of 136 and 374 silver atoms each. The research was published in Nature Communications.
Gold nanoclusters that are stabilized by a thiol molecular layer have been known for decades, but only during the last few years have silver clusters attracted more interest in the research community. Silver is a desirable material for nanocluster synthesis since it is a cheaper metal than gold and its optical properties are more easily controlled for applications. However, synthesis recipes that would produce stable silver clusters are not so widely known.
The diamond-shaped nanoclusters in the present study were synthesized in Xiamen University in China and characterized using X-ray crystallography and electron microscopy. They consist of a silver core of two to three nanometers wide and a protective layer of silver atoms and organic thiol molecules. To date, they are the largest silver nanoclusters whose structure is now known to atomic precision.
“The internal structure of the metal core is a combination of little crystallites of silver that are joined together to form a five-fold symmetric diamond-shape structure,” said co-corresponding author Professor Zheng Nanfen from Xiamen University.
According to the researchers, the clusters are already big enough that they have properties similar to silver metal, such as strong absorption of light leading to collective oscillations of the electron cloud known as plasmons, yet small enough that we can study their electronic structure in detail.
The article can be found at: Yang et al. (2016) Plasmonic Twinned Silver Nanoparticles with Molecular Precision.
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Source: Academy of Finland; Photo: Xiamen University.
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