Investigation of the surface chemistry of phosphine-stabilized ruthenium nanoparticles – an advanced solid-state NMR study

Abstract

³¹ P–¹³C REDOR NMR measurements allowed a reasonable approximation of distances between stabilizing ligands and carbon monoxide (CO) molecules on the surface of phosphine-stabilized ruthenium nanoparticles (RuNPs). The studied systems are RuNPs in the size range of 1–2 nm stabilized with 1,3,5-triaza-7-phosphaadamantane (PTA) or triphenylphosphine (PPh₃) and exposed to a CO atmosphere. This study sheds some light on the interactions between CO and phosphine molecules as well as on their binding geometries on the surface of the RuNPs. As information on the ligand location and mobility is precious for the understanding of the chemical and catalytic properties of nanoparticles, these results support the interest of using sophisticated NMR tools to investigate their surface chemistry.