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Research Article | Open Access

Metal ion-induced alloying and size transformation of water-soluble metal nanoclusters

Shuyu Qian1Fengyu Liu2Haiguang Zhu1Yong Liu1Ting Feng1Xinyue Dou1Xun Yuan1 ( )
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266042, China
Sino-German Institute of Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266042, China
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Abstract

The development of novel strategies for the synthesis of water-soluble alloy nanoclusters (NCs) and investigations of their alloying mechanisms are highly desirable. Herein, we report the design of a metal ion-induced alloying strategy for the synthesis of atomically precise water-soluble alloy NCs. The transformation of Au15(GSH)13 NCs as model seeds (here GSH denotes water-soluble glutathione) into Au18−xAgx(GSH)14 NCs was triggered using Ag(I) ions; subsequently, Au(III) ions were employed to convert the variable-composition Au18−xAgx(GSH)14 NCs into fixed-composition alloy Au26Ag(GSH)17Cl2 NCs. Monitoring of the alloying process showed that the formation of Au18−xAgx(GSH)14 NCs proceeds through the two electron-hopping events (2e Au15 → 2e (AuAg)15–17 → 4e (AuAg)18–19 → 4e (AuAg)18), whereas the transformation of (AuAg)18 into Au26Ag mainly involved the formation of intermediate species Au26(GSH)17Cln (n = 0–2). Moreover, we determined that the single Ag atom in Au26Ag NCs resides on the NC surface. This study not only provides a novel strategy for the synthesis of water-soluble alloy NCs but also contributes to the fundamental understanding of the alloying mechanism of metal NCs.

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Polyoxometalates
Article number: 9140049
Cite this article:
Qian S, Liu F, Zhu H, et al. Metal ion-induced alloying and size transformation of water-soluble metal nanoclusters. Polyoxometalates, 2023, 2(4): 9140049. https://doi.org/10.26599/POM.2023.9140049

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Received: 16 October 2023
Revised: 24 November 2023
Accepted: 27 November 2023
Published: 11 December 2023
© The Author(s) 2023. Polyoxometalates published by Tsinghua University Press.

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