Gold nanoparticles from self-assembled gold(i) amine precursorsElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: experimental details and full characterization of complexes 2–4, powder XRD spectra of 2 and TEM micrographs of 2 and gold nanoparticles. See http://www.rsc.org/suppdata/cc/b0/b005327i/

Abstract

The reaction of AuCl(THT) (1) with long chain primary amines (C_nH_2n+1NH₂; n = 8, 12, 16) leads to the formation of the complexes AuCl(NH₂R) (R = C₈H₁₇, 2; C₁₂H₂₅, 3; C₁₆H₃₃, 4) which are characterized by classical methods and shown to self-organize in the solid state into a fibrous material; decomposition of the complexes inside the supramolecular framework yields a monolayer of ordered gold nanoparticles.