Chapter 2 - Controlled Synthesis: Size Control

Abstract

Abstract This chapter focuses on the state-of-the-art methods of atomically precise synthesis of Au and Ag clusters whose surfaces are protected by monolayers of organic ligands such as thiols, phosphines, and terminal alkynes. Chemical compositions of ligand-protected Au and Ag clusters that had been isolated by the end of 2014 are surveyed. High stability of the isolated Au and Ag clusters is explained in terms of geometrical and electronic structures. Manifestation of molecular-like optical properties and non-face-centered cubic atomic packing below a critical size is demonstrated by taking alkanethiolate-protected Au clusters as an example.