Thiols are known to adsorb on a variety of metal surfaces and nanoparticles, including gold. Self-assembled monolayers have also been proposed for corrosion protection of reactive metals. While extensive work has been performed related to thiol adsorption on metals, fewer studies have been carried out related to metal oxides. In this work, fluorescence and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) have been used to investigate the adsorption of thiols, including 2-naphthalene thiol and methanethiol, on a variety of metal oxide nanoparticles having typical average particle sizes of 20-30 nm. Examples of nanoparticles that adsorb thiols include ZnO and ZrO<sub>2</sub>. Comparison is made to experiments on single crystalline ZnO(0001) and oxidized polycrystalline zirconium. A novel method of forming oxidized gold nanoshells is also presented, along with initial results related to thiol adsorption on these nanoparticles. In this case, reaction of the thiols with the nanoshells results in reduction of the oxidized gold nanoshell and oxidation of the thiol. This work may have applications for chemical sensing and gas filtration.

Thiol adsorption on metal oxide nanoparticles and surfaces

249th National Meeting (2015)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.