Electron Dose-Controlled Formation, Growth, and Assembly of Nanoclusters and Nanoparticles from Aurophilic Au(I)–Thiolate Ensemble on Surfaces

Journal Article · Tue Nov 06 00:00:00 EST 2018 · ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.8b17941· OSTI ID:1557997

Cheng, Han -Wen ^[1]; Yan, Shan ^[2]; Li, Jing ^[2]; Wang, Jie ^[3]; Wang, Lingyan ^[4]; Skeete, Zakiya ^[2]; Shan, Shiyao ^[2]; Zhong, Chuan -Jian  ^[2]

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1. Shanghai Institute of Technology, Shanghai (China); State Univ. of New York at Binghamton, Binghamton, NY (United States)
2. State Univ. of New York at Binghamton, Binghamton, NY (United States)
3. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Lemont, IL (United States)
4. Corning Inc., Corning, NY (United States)

The ability to precisely control electron irradiationinduced formation, growth, and assembly of nanoclusters or nanoparticles on a solid surface is important for design and creation of catalytically or chemically active surface sites and interfaces free from chemical reducing agents. Here, we show the results of an investigation of the electron dose-controlled formation, growth, and assembly of nanoclusters and nanoparticles in a molecularly assembled thin film of Au(I)–thiolate motifs on a substrate, highlighting an in situ monitoring of the evolution of morphology under controlled electron dose. With aurophilic motifs of Au(I)–thiolate being confined by electrostatic interactions, the sizes of Au nanoclusters and nanoparticles were shown to increase with electron dose, revealing a propensity of a string alignment of the grown nanoclusters and nanoparticles. This growth preference to onedimensional assembly is supported by the analysis of the surface reaction kinetics in terms of the surface density of electron dose for the growth of the nanoclusters and nanoparticles. Here, the electron dose-controlled size-focusing and directional assembly of nanoclusters and nanoparticles may be exploited as new strategy for the precise control of nanoclusters or nanoparticles and their assemblies on solid surfaces not only free from chemical reducing agent but also with the ability of visual monitoring of the morphological evolution during growth.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: National Science Foundation (NSF); National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC); USDOE
• Grant/Contract Number: AC02-06CH11357
• OSTI ID: 1557997
• Journal Information: ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, Vol. 10, Issue 46; ISSN 1944-8244
• Publisher: American Chemical Society (ACS)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
aggregative growth
aurophilic Au(I)-SR motifs
electron dose
in situ monitoring
one-dimensional assembly
gold nanoclusters and nanoparticles