Abstract
Aggregation-induced emission (AIE) is an intriguing strategy to enhance the luminescence of metal nanoclusters (NCs). However, the morphologies of aggregated NCs are often irregular and inhomogeneous, leading to instability and poor color purity of the aggregations, which greatly limit their further potential in optical applications. Inspired by self-assembly techniques, manipulating metal NCs into well-defined architectures has achieved success. The self-assembled metal NCs often exhibit enhancing emission stability and intensity compared to the individually or randomly aggregated ones. Meanwhile, the emission color of metal NCs becomes tunable. In this review, we summarize the synthetic strategies involved in self-assembly of metal NCs for the first time. For each synthetic strategy, we describe the self-assembly mechanisms involved and the dependence of optical properties on the self-assembly. Finally, we outline the current challenges to and perspectives on the development of this area.
Highlights
Metal nanoclusters (NCs) consist of several to hundreds of metal atoms, bridging the gap between small organometallic complexes and large metal nanoparticles (NPs)
The quantum yields (QY) of metal NCs seldom exceed 0.1% [4,5], which greatly restrict them in many optical applications, such as biosensing, bioimaging, and solid-state lighting and display [6,7,8,9,10,11]
The double-stranded-DNA-stabilized Ag NCs could self-assemble into a large sheet-like membrane in solution driven by bovine serum albumin (BSA), thereby generating aggregation-induced emission (AIE)-induced five-fold emission enhancement and a blue shift in emission [44]
Summary
Metal nanoclusters (NCs) consist of several to hundreds of metal atoms, bridging the gap between small organometallic complexes and large metal nanoparticles (NPs). The common AIE approaches for metal NCs are cation- and solvent-induced aggregations [14,16,17]. Big success has been achieved in self-assembly of large building blocks, such as metal nanoparticles [19], proteins [20], and polymers [21], it is more difficult to direct metal NCs assemble into high-ordered structures due to their ultra-small size and unique core–shell structure. The second is to utilize soft templates to guide the shape-controlled synthesis of metal NCs, named “soft template directed assembly.” In this route, the NC assemblies formed should achieve the shape of the templates. Limited success has been achieved in utilizing the traditional AIE approaches in self-assembly of metal NCs into highly ordered architecture, including cation- and solvent-induced assembly. We outline the current challenges of NC self-assembly and our perspective on the development of this area
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