Issue 2, 2018

X-ray crystal structure and doping mechanism of bimetallic nanocluster Au36−xCux(m-MBT)24 (x = 1–3)

Abstract

A novel Au36−xCux(m-MBT)24 (x = 1–3, m-MBT = 3-methylbenzenethiolate) nanocluster has been prepared. According to the X-ray single crystal diffractometer, the structure of Au36−xCux(m-MBT)24 is similar to that of Au36(SPhtBu)24. The Au36−xCux(m-MBT)24 nanocluster contains a face-centered cubic (FCC) M28 core, which is protected by 4 M2S3 (M = Au/Cu) staple motifs and 12 bridging SR ligands. The Cu dopants could possibly occupy 14 sites (six in the sub-surface and eight in the staple motifs). Spectral monitoring indicates that the number of Cu dopants sequentially increased on increasing the amount of Cu precursors (relative to a Au control). Meanwhile, DFT calculations imply that the maximum doping number of Cu is 3, and doping occurs preferentially at the staple sites and sub-surface sites (instead of the centre of the core). Because the atomic orbital of the peripheral locations hardly contributes to the frontier molecular orbitals, the UV-vis of the AuCu alloy is almost the same as that of its homometallic Au counterpart.

Graphical abstract: X-ray crystal structure and doping mechanism of bimetallic nanocluster Au36−xCux(m-MBT)24 (x = 1–3)

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
10 Aug 2017
Accepted
28 Nov 2017
First published
28 Nov 2017

Dalton Trans., 2018,47, 475-480

X-ray crystal structure and doping mechanism of bimetallic nanocluster Au36−xCux(m-MBT)24 (x = 1–3)

B. Rao, T. Zhao, S. Yang, J. Chai, Y. Pan, S. Weng, H. Yu, X. Li and M. Zhu, Dalton Trans., 2018, 47, 475 DOI: 10.1039/C7DT02959D

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