Structure of Tiopronin-Protected Silver Nanoclusters in a One-Dimensional Assembly

作者：Padmos, J. Daniel; Boudreau, Robert T. M.; Weaver, Donald F.; Zhang, Peng^*

来源：Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 2015, 119(43): 24627-24635.

DOI：10.1021/acs.jpcc.5b07426

• ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY
• SURFACE-STRUCTURE
• NANOPARTICLES
• AG2S
• NANOCRYSTALS
• LUMINESCENCE
• TOXICITY
• RELEASE
• ALKYL

The preparation and characterization of all-thiol-protected noble-metal nanoclusters represent significant advancements in the field of nanomaterials. One of the emerging trends in the study of silver nanoclusters in particular, is the generation of sulfide-type silver at their surfaces as a result of surface protection by thiols. Here, X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) was used to identify the structure and composition of 2 nm tiopronin-protected silver nanoclusters arranged in one-dimensional chains. Silver K-edge XAS multipath refinements and wavelet-transformed XAS analysis found that the nanoclusters comprised small metal cores surrounded by thick sulfide-type shells. This further demonstrates that the sulfide-type shell is a prevalent surface structure throughout silver nanoclusters protected by thiols. In addition, the antibacterial activities of the nanoclusters were also examined; they were found to be active against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, thereby shedding light on the effects of both the surface structure and the special arrangement of the nanoclusters.

• 出版日期2015-10-29