Observation of uniform ligand environments and 31P–197Au coupling in phosphine-terminated Au nanoparticles

Abstract

Here, we use solution and solid-state ³¹P NMR to study the ligand environment of water soluble, phosphine-terminated gold nanoparticles. The resulting spectra indicate that particle-bound phosphine ligands occupy an unexpectedly monodisperse ligand environment. This uniformity then facilitates one of the first descriptions of distinct ³¹P–¹⁹⁷Au coupling in colloidal nanoparticles.