For the past few years, silver nanoclusters (AgNCs) became one of the most vigorously studied fields for their abundance of the materials, low cost and interesting optical properties, compared to gold nanoclusters. However, the low stability of the AgNCs has always been a big challenge. In this poster, we present the synthesis and characterization of a very stable, highly pure, and water soluble AgNCs protected by 3-mercapto-1-propylsulfonate ligands (MPS). The synthesis was carried out at 0 �C by reducing AgNO3 with sodium borohydride in the presence of MPS ligands. Thus prepared cluster mixture was further purified by poly-acrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE), which isolated two major clusters. These two AgNCs were found to be Ag44(MPS)30 and Ag32(MPS)19, identified by electro spray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS). These clusters were water-soluble and found to be stable at room temperature for more than a month. The presence of sulfonate terminal groups at the end of the ligands enabled facile modification of the anionic clusters by ion-pairing with functional cations. Anionic liquid of Ag cluster could be prepared by ion-pairing with 1,3-dimethylimidazolium cation.

Synthesis and characterization of quantum sized silver nanoclusters protected with 3-mercapto-1-propylsulfonate

247th National Meeting (2014)

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