Polyamine‐Assisted Rapid Gold Nanocluster Synthesis via Electrostatic Attraction‐Facilitated Core Approaching

Abstract

AbstractThiolate‐stabilized gold nanoclusters (Au NCs) are widely used in bioimaging, chemical sensing, and emitting devices because of their good solubility, great stability and versatile optical/chemical properties. However, most conventional synthetic strategies reported so far suffer long reaction time, which limits the rapid and large‐scale synthesis of Au NCs. In this study, a simple electrostatic attraction‐assisted core approaching strategy was developed, which accelerates the synthesis of Au NCs by introducing polyamine (hyperbranched polyetheneimine, hPEI). As a case study, the tactic was demonstrated for the rapid preparation of Au NCs based on glutathione (GSH)‐HAuCl4 system within 1.5 h. The synthesis includes two steps: first, negatively charged Au(I)‐GSH complex under basic condition (pH 9) was adsorbed onto hPEI surface via electrostatic attraction; second, aurophilic attraction of Au(I) centers benefited the formation of Au NCs. With such a strategy, copper nanoclusters (Cu NCs) can also be quickly prepared within 30 min.