Synthesis and Optical Properties of a Dithiolate/Phosphine-Protected Au28 Nanocluster
By Aljuhani, Maha A.; Bootharaju, Megalamane S.; Sinatra, Lutfan; Basset, Jean-Marie; Mohammed, Omar F.; Bakr, Osman M.
Published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry C
Abstract
While monothiols and simple phosphines are commonly exploited for size-controlled synthesis of atomically precise gold nanoclusters (NCs), dithiols or dithiol-phosphine combinations are seldom applied. Herein, we used a dithiol (benzene-1,3-dithiol, BDT) and a phosphine (triphenylphosphine, TPP) together as ligands and synthesized an atomically precise gold NC with the formula [Au28(BDT)4(TPP)9]2+. This NC exhibited multiple absorption features and a charge of +2, which are distinctly different from the reported all-thiolated [Au28(SR)20]0 NC (SR: monothiolate). The composition of [Au28(BDT)4(TPP)9]2+ NC was deduced from high-resolution electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI MS) and it was further corroborated by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) revealed a HOMO