Issue 34, 2024

Single-atom alloy structure and unique bonding properties of Au104Ag40(PET)60 nanoclusters

Abstract

The detailed characterization of AuAg alloy nanoclusters is essential to guide the discovery of species ideal for applications in various fields including catalysis and biomedicine. This work presents structural analysis of the Au104Ag40(PET)60 species through X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS). First, XAS fitting is utilized to model the distribution of Au and Ag atoms within the structure. Our proposed model assigns Ag atoms to the vertex sites of the second shell of the metal core, as well as the outermost staple sites. This distribution reveals Au104Ag40(PET)60 to be a Ag single-atom alloy. The proposed model shows outstanding agreement with the coordination number values derived from XAS. XAS near-edge analysis is employed to investigate the alloy bonding interactions between Au and Ag. Substantial d-electron transfer from Au to Ag is observed in this sample, beyond the magnitude of previously studied AuAg NCs. This work enhances the understanding of the structure–property relationship of AuAg alloy NCs, offering insights which can be applied to other large NCs and even NPs. These insights will in turn aid the discovery of new materials for use in various applications.

Graphical abstract: Single-atom alloy structure and unique bonding properties of Au104Ag40(PET)60 nanoclusters

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
29 Jun 2024
Accepted
31 Jul 2024
First published
05 Aug 2024

Nanoscale, 2024,16, 16140-16147

Single-atom alloy structure and unique bonding properties of Au104Ag40(PET)60 nanoclusters

D. Morris, X. Du, R. Jin and P. Zhang, Nanoscale, 2024, 16, 16140 DOI: 10.1039/D4NR02688H

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