Engineering ultrasmall metal nanoclusters for photocatalytic and electrocatalytic applications

Chai, Osburg Jin Huang; Liu, Zhihe; Chen, Tiankai; Xie, Jianping

doi:10.1039/c9nr07272a

Cited by 57 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 98 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Photocatalytic activity. Metal NCs have been studied as catalytic systems in different types of reactions such as CO oxidation, selective oxidation, selective hydrogenation, organic reactions, electrocatalytic 17,45 , and photocatalytic reactions 11,[46][47][48][49][50][51] . These processes have been mainly explored for gold NCs.…”

Section: High Resolution and Corrected Electron Microscopy Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the other hand, bimetal Au-Ag NCs show changes in their electronic structure and therefore its light absorption properties. This suggests the possibility to tune them to specific catalysis 11 and photocatalysis applications 45 . Particularly, for the case of Ag NCs, several researches have been performed regarding the organic molecules degradation through photocatalysis.…”

Section: High Resolution and Corrected Electron Microscopy Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Highly fluorescent few atoms silver nanoclusters with strong photocatalytic activity synthesized by ultrashort light pulses

Santillán

Arboleda

Muraca

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

While there are conventional chemical synthesis methods to generate metal nanoclusters (NCs), many of them are adversely affected by the unavoidable contamination of the nanoproduct solution, resulting in aggregation, background noise in analytical chemistry, toxicity, and deactivation of the catalyst. In this work, physical method of ultrafast laser ablation as a "green" synthesis approach together with mechanical centrifugation to obtain silver NCs, simplifying widely the chemical synthesis requirements, is proposed. Remarkably, compared with conventional methods for synthesizing Ag NCs, this new approach starts with a colloid that contains nanosized particles as well as smaller species, managing to obtain colloids with few atoms NCs by centrifugation. Those colloids were analyzed by fluorescence spectroscopy observing UV bands corresponding with HOMO-LUMO cluster transitions. Besides, independent HRTEM measurements were made confirming the presence of few atoms Ag NCs, as well as small NPs in different formation stages. Equally important, photocatalytic efficiency of the obtained NCs was studied through degradation of Methylene Blue (MB) when it was mixed with as-prepared or highly centrifuged colloid, showing an enhanced photocatalytic efficiency of 79% as compared to 57% for pure MB after 180 min of illumination. Consequently, this work contributes to establishing a simple approach to synthesize highly fluorescent and photocatalytic NCs. Metal clusters are known as few nanometer sized particles made up of subunits which can be atoms of a single element (mono metal), or of several elements (alloys). Their novel chemical and physical properties are dependent only on the number of atoms they contain. These size-dependent properties, which make them suitable for applications in catalysis 1 , photoluminescence 2 , biomedical 3 and magnetism 4 , among others, show significant deviations from their bulk and large nanoparticles (NPs) counterparts. For this reason metal clusters may be considered as new materials covering the intermediate stage between single atoms/molecules and bulk materials. There are different procedures for clusters synthesis, which rely on the use of microemulsions 5,6 , vesicles 7 and electrochemistry techniques 4,8,9 , thiol cappings 10 and other ligand-protected gold, silver, copper and bimetal/alloy NCs 11,12 synthesized by wet chemistry. Wu et al. 13 presented a review on directed self-assembly (DSA) of ultrasmall (sub-two-nanometer regime) metal NCs through wet chemistry methods. They show that surface ligands are important for self-assembly processes for the different noble metals reviewed. Gold NCs have been studied for their potential use in nanosensors, bioimaging and as biomarkers, the latter based on its well-known biocompatibility characteristics. Copper NCs were studied during the last years for applications in chemical sensors and biolabeling agents based on their catalytic and optical properties. Particularly, DSA allows bright emission in the blue-green for nanoribbons assemble...

show abstract

Section: High Resolution and Corrected Electron Microscopy Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: High Resolution and Corrected Electron Microscopy Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Highly fluorescent few atoms silver nanoclusters with strong photocatalytic activity synthesized by ultrashort light pulses

Santillán

Arboleda

Muraca

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For example, ligands will affect the physical and chemical properties of Au NCs, such as HOMO–LUMO (highest occupied and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital) electronic transitions, [ 24 ] photoluminescence, [ 25 ] discrete redox behavior, [ 26 ] intrinsic magnetism, [ 27 ] and optical chirality. [ 9 ] These properties can be further used to design functional Au NCs for various applications in the fields of optoelectronics, [ 28 ] sensing, [ 29 ] catalysis, [ 30 ] and biomedicine. [ 31,32 ] Therefore, the design (and the choice) of the ligands on Au NCs can determine their performance and behaviors in the above applications.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ligand Design in Ligand‐Protected Gold Nanoclusters

Zhang

Chen

Cao

et al. 2021

Small

Self Cite

141

136

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The design of surface ligands is crucial for ligand‐protected gold nanoclusters (Au NCs). Besides providing good protection for Au NCs, the surface ligands also play the following two important roles: i) as the outermost layer of Au NCs, the ligands will directly interact with the exterior environment (e.g., solvents, molecules and cells) influencing Au NCs in various applications; and ii) the interfacial chemistry between ligands and gold atoms can determine the structures, as well as the physical and chemical properties of Au NCs. A delicate ligand design in Au NCs (or other metal NCs) needs to consider the covalent bonds between ligands and gold atoms (e.g., gold–sulfur (Au–S) and gold–phosphorus (Au–P) bond), the physics forces between ligands (e.g., hydrophobic and van der Waals forces), and the ionic forces between the functional groups of ligands (e.g., carboxylic (COOH) and amine group (NH2)); which form the underlying chemistry and discussion focus of this review article. Here, detailed discussions on the effects of surface ligands (e.g., thiolate, phosphine, and alkynyl ligands; or hydrophobic and hydrophilic ligands) on the synthesis, structures, and properties of Au NCs; highlighting the design principles in the surface engineering of Au NCs for diverse emerging applications, are provided.

show abstract

“…HER is the cathodic reaction in the electrolysis of water to produce H 2 fuel, where the electrocatalysts play a key role in determining the reaction kinetics. [ 12,67,102,103 ] HER involves the transfer of two electrons on the electrode surface via two individual steps, following either the Volmer–Heyrovsky or the Volmer–Tafel mechanisms ( Figure ). [ 104 ] The first step, namely the Volmer or discharging reaction, is to form the absorbed hydrogen intermediate H* on the electrode surface via proton discharging.…”

Section: Electrochemical Applications Of Macsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multiatom Catalysts for Energy‐Related Electrocatalysis

Peng

Feng

Yan

et al. 2020

Advanced Sustainable Systems

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Multiatom catalysts (MACs) with isolated monodisperse active sites comprising two to tens of metal atoms have attracted intensive research attention and industrial interest. With the combination of high atom utilization and well‐defined molecule‐like electronic structure, MACs show great potential for applications in a wide range of electrochemical catalytic reactions. This review aims to discuss the recent progress of MACs in energy‐related electrocatalysis. Critical issues, including the synthesis and characterization of the MACs, will be showcased. Moreover, recent advances are highlighted in the design and synthesis of MACs with a well‐controlled structure and composition to achieve enhanced catalytic performance in energy‐related electrocatalysis. Current challenges and future prospects for MACs are also presented to shed light on the rational design of MACs as potential industrialized catalysts in the future.

show abstract

Engineering ultrasmall metal nanoclusters for photocatalytic and electrocatalytic applications

Abstract: The many fundamental properties of ultrasmall noble metal nanoclusters have made it increasingly clear that they possess enormous potential for photo- and electro-catalytic applications due to their unique electronic and optical properties.

Cited by 57 publications

References 98 publications

Highly fluorescent few atoms silver nanoclusters with strong photocatalytic activity synthesized by ultrashort light pulses

Highly fluorescent few atoms silver nanoclusters with strong photocatalytic activity synthesized by ultrashort light pulses

Ligand Design in Ligand‐Protected Gold Nanoclusters

Multiatom Catalysts for Energy‐Related Electrocatalysis

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About