Synthesis and Structure of Selenolate-Protected Metal Nanoclusters

Abstract

Surface ligands not only stabilize metal nanoclusters from aggregation, but also play a crucial role in affecting their geometric structure, physicochemical properties, and applications. Owing to their ultrasmall size, metal nanoclusters exhibit strong quantum size effects, which endow them with unique physicochemical properties, such as multiple absorption bands, strong photoluminescence, magnetism, and outstanding catalytic reactivity, which are different from those of the large nanoparticles with surface plasmon resonance. Metal nanoclusters have attracted wide interest since they have a significant potential application as functional materials. In recent years, it has been reported that more stable gold clusters can be produced by changing the ligand of these gold clusters from thiolate to selenolate. Preparing more metal nanoclusters with diverse sizes and structures is very significant to promote the development of nanocluster science. Therefore, the synthesis of selenolate-protected metal nanoclusters plays a significant role in the development of this area.