Nanoparticle interfacial interaction has emerged as one of the most active area of research. However, most of the studies have focused on the ligand binding to nanoparticle in individual solvents. Potential solvent effect on the ligand structure and composition has to our knowledge, not been systematically investigated. Discussed herein is the solvent dependent of the ligand structure and conformation on plasmonic gold nanoparticle (AuNP) and silver (AgNP) nanoparticle surfaces. Several classes of model molecules have been employed in this study that include thioamide (mercaptobenzimidazole, thioguanine), aromatic mono- and dithiols (methylbenzenethiol and benzene dithiols), aliphatic mono- and dithiol (ethanethiol and ethanedithiol), and nonspecific ligand (adenine). The solvent effects were studied using two approaches. The first is performed by first mixing ligand in water/ethanol mixture solvent with AuNPs, then washing ligand-containing AuNP/AgNP aggregates using the targeted solvents. The second is by first aggregating the AuNPs and AgNPs using KNO<sub>3</sub> then adding the ligand in targeted solvents. The model solvents including water, tetrahydrofuaran, carbon tetrachloride, and dichloromethane. The experimental results are analyzed in combination with computational modeling. The data obtained with these two solvent dependent studies shed a series of new insights to the mass transfer and chemical reactivity of ligands trapped on the junction of the aggregated AuNPs and AgNPs.

Solvent-dependent ligand structure and conformation on gold and silver nanoparticles

255th National Meeting (2018)

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