Traveling through the Desalting Column Spontaneously Transforms Thiolated Ag Nanoclusters from Nonluminescent to Highly Luminescent

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• 作者：Xun Yuan ; Qiaofeng Yao ; Yong Yu ; Zhentao Luo ; Xinyue Dou ; Jianping Xie
• 刊名：The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters
• 出版年：2013
• 出版时间：June 6, 2013
• 年：2013
• 卷：4
• 期：11
• 页码：1811-1815
• 全文大小：267K
• 年卷期：v.4,no.11(June 6, 2013)
• ISSN：1948-7185

文摘

This letter reports an unexpected observation in the purification of ultrasmall (<2 nm) thiolate-protected Ag nanoclusters (NCs) via a common separation technique (e.g., desalting column and ultrafiltration), where the nonluminescent Ag NCs were spontaneously transformed to highly luminescent NCs during the separation. This interesting finding was then used to develop a facile and fast (<5 min) synthesis method for highly luminescent Ag NCs. The key strategy was to use the separation process to selectively remove small species (e.g., salts and excess protecting ligands) from the Ag NC solution, which induced a size or structure-focusing of Ag NCs in the solution, leading to the formation of highly luminescent Ag NCs. The concurrent synthesis and purification of highly luminescent Ag NCs via a common 鈥減hysical separation unit鈥?could be further advanced in a continuous mode for large-scale production of luminescent Ag NCs.

Keywords:

noble-metal nanoclusters; luminescence; transformation; fast synthesis; size focusing