Construction of novel Ag(0)-containing silver nanoclusters by regulating auxiliary phosphine ligands

Abstract

Controlled synthesis of metal clusters through minor changes in surface ligands holds significant interest because the corresponding entities serve as ideal models for investigating the ligand environment's stereochemical and electronic contributions that impact the corresponding structures and properties of metal clusters. In this work, we obtained two Ag(0)-containing nanoclusters (Ag₁₇ and Ag₃₂) with near-infrared emissions by regulating phosphine auxiliary ligands. Ag₁₇ and Ag₃₂ bear similar shells wherein Ag₁₇ features a trigonal bipyramid Ag₅ kernel while Ag₃₂ has a bi-icosahedral interpenetrating an Ag₂₀ kernel. Ag₁₇ and Ag₃₂ showed a near-infrared emission (NIR) of around 830 nm. Benefiting from the rigid structure, Ag₁₇ displayed a more intense near-infrared emission than Ag₃₂. This work provides new insight into the construction of novel superatomic silver nanoclusters by regulating phosphine ligands.