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Converting ultrafine silver nanoclusters to monodisperse silver sulfide nanoparticles via a reversible phase transfer protocol

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Abstract

To achieve better control of the formation of silver sulfide (Ag2S) nanoparticles, ultrasmall Ag nanoclusters protected by thiolate ligands (Ag44(SR)30 and Ag16(GSH)9) are used as precursors, which, via delicate chemistry, can be readily converted to monodisperse Ag2S nanoparticles with controllable sizes (4–16 nm) and switchable solvent affinity (between aqueous and organic solvents). This new synthetic protocol makes use of the atomic monodispersity and rich surface chemistry of Ag nanoclusters and a novel two-phase protocol design, which results in a well-controlled reaction environment for the formation of Ag2S nanoparticles.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Complex Systems, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

    Yan Feng & Jun Yang

  2. Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, 10 Kent Ridge Crescent, Singapore, 119260, Singapore

    Yan Feng, Qiaofeng Yao, Jingguo Li, Nirmal Goswami & Jianping Xie

Authors
  1. Yan Feng
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  2. Qiaofeng Yao
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  3. Jingguo Li
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  4. Nirmal Goswami
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  5. Jianping Xie
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  6. Jun Yang
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Correspondence to Jianping Xie or Jun Yang.

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Feng, Y., Yao, Q., Li, J. et al. Converting ultrafine silver nanoclusters to monodisperse silver sulfide nanoparticles via a reversible phase transfer protocol. Nano Res. 9, 942–950 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-015-0980-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-015-0980-y

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