0000000000299342
AUTHOR
Amala Dass
Size Exclusion Chromatography for Semipreparative Scale Separation of Au 38 (SR) 24 and Au 40 (SR) 24 and Larger Clusters
Size exclusion chromatography (SEC) on a semipreparative scale (10 mg and more) was used to size-select ultrasmall gold nanoclusters (2 nm) from polydisperse mixtures. In particular, the ubiquitous byproducts of the etching process toward Au(38)(SR)(24) (SR, thiolate) clusters were separated and gained in high monodispersity (based on mass spectrometry). The isolated fractions were characterized by UV-vis spectroscopy, MALDI mass spectrometry, HPLC, and electron microscopy. Most notably, the separation of Au(38)(SR)(24) and Au(40)(SR)(24) clusters is demonstrated.
Symmetry breaking in ligand-protected gold clusters probed by nonlinear optics
The first hyperpolarizabilities of [Au25(SR)18](-1/0) and Au38(SR)24 clusters were determined by Hyper-Rayleigh Scattering. A strong dependence on the molecular symmetry was observed, and we explore two strategies to destroy the center of inversion in [Au25(SR)18](-1/0), protection by chiral ligands and alloying of the cluster with silver. This may open new avenues to applications of Au : SR clusters in second-order nonlinear optics.