Alkanethiolate-protected gold nanoparticles are ubiquitous in nanoscience and technology, where they are valued for their ease of synthesis, stability, solubility, and emergent electronic properties. Often, chain lengths are varied in order to control solubility and stability, without concern for how the electronic properties might be affected. Here, we probe electronics within the gold core as a function of alkane chain length, using conduction electron spin resonance (CESR) -- a technique that is sensitive to the behavior of electrons near the Fermi Energy of metallic systems. We find that the properties of these <i>metallic</i> electrons are strongly affected by changes in chain length, and explore the chemical reasoning for this dependence.

Changes in alkanethiolate chain length result in large changes to the electronic properties of the metallic core in gold nanoparticles, as probed by conduction electron spin resonance

251st National Meeting (2016)

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