Gold Nanoclusters as Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion

Abstract

Gold nanoclusters (Aun NCs) exhibit a size-specific electronic structure unlike bulk gold and can therefore be used as catalysts in various reactions. Ligand-protected Aun NCs can be synthesized with atomic precision, and the geometric structures of many Aun NCs have been determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. In addition, Aun NCs can be doped with various types of elements. Clarification of the effects of changes to the chemical composition, geometric structure, and associated electronic state on catalytic activity would enable a deep understanding of the active sites and mechanisms in catalytic reactions as well as key factors for high activation. Furthermore, it may be possible to synthesize Aun NCs with properties that surpass those of conventional catalysts using the obtained design guidelines. With these expectations, catalyst research using Aun NCs as a model catalyst has been actively conducted in recent years. This review focuses on the application of Aun NCs as an electrocatalyst and outlines recent research progress.

Controlled colloidal metal nanoparticles and nanoclusters: recent applications as cocatalysts for improving photocatalytic water-splitting activity

“…2). 34,79,[115][116][117][118][119][120][121][122] In this way, the syntheses and applications are being actively investigated for metal NPs and metal NCs at present. Multiple reviews have been published on the recent research development of such metal NPs and NCs.…”

Supramolecular Gold Chemistry: From Atomically Precise Thiolate-Protected Gold Nanoclusters to Gold-Thiolate Nanostructures

“…The aim of this Special Issue on "Supramolecular Gold Chemistry" was to provide a unique international forum aimed at covering a broad description of results involving the supramolecular chemistry of gold with a special focus on the gold-sulfur interface leading to hybrid materials, ranging from gold-thiolate complexes, [3] to thiolate-protected gold nanoclusters [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] and gold-thiolate supramolecular assemblies or nanoparticles. [12][13][14] The role of thiolates on the structure and optical features of gold nanohybrid systems (ranging from plasmonic gold nanoparticles and fluorescent gold nanoclusters to self-assembled Au-containing thiolated coordination polymers) has been highlighted in the review article by Csapó and coworkers [14].…”

“…Separation techniques (liquid chromatography, gas phase ion mobility) can help in discriminating and characterizing structures. In this Special Issue, Antoine and coworkers combine an ion mobility-mass spectrometry approach with density functional theory (DFT) calculations for the determination of the structural and optical properties of gold thiolate oligomers (Au 10 (TGA) 10 with TGA: thioglycolic acid) [3]. Whetten and coworkers combine electrospray ionization with high-performance liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS) to separate and identify 3-MBA (MBA: mercaptobenzoic acid) protected gold nanoclusters, spanning a narrow size range from 13.4 to 18.1 kDa [5].…”

“…On the other hand, gold nanoclusters have been proposed as a new, promising class of model catalyst [17]. Li and cowokers [6] and Negishi and coworkers [10] nicely review some interesting aspects of nanocluster catalysis for heterogeneous cross-coupling and for energy conversion.…”

Active Learning A Neural Network Model For Gold Clusters & Bulk From Sparse First Principles Training Data

“…[33,18] Such sizeselected clusters that comprise of a handful of atoms often display exotic catalytic properties that are much different than that of either nano-sized or bulk catalysts. [59,25,23,67,32,49,51] These clusters contain well-defined number of atoms and offer an ideal platform to study catalysis at the atomic level. They also serve as model systems to enable a comprehensive fundamen-tal insight into the nature of the catalytic processes that are otherwise difficult to explore using catalysts prepared by conventional methods that often yield particles with finite distributions in size and composition.…”