Nanomaterial use in medicine, electronics, and a myriad of other fields has increased over the years. It is known that the properties of transition metals at the nanoscale significantly vary from the properties of the bulk material. However, efforts to understand these properties, particularly electronic structure, are hampered by difficulties in isolating clusters and particles with well-characterized size and composition.  Using mass spectrometry, we have characterized clusters and their precursors with a variety of ligands and identified a number of impurities which arise from synthesis. We have also observed the formation of other gold nanoclusters through Collision-Induced Dissociation (CID). The energy applied to the compounds encourages the formation of smaller gold species which would otherwise not be synthesized and studied.  We use gas-phase vibrational and electronic spectroscopy of clusters with compositions exactly selected in a mass spectrometer to study the electronic interactions between the ligands and the metal core of small nanoclusters of 1-2 nm diameter. We hope to determine the electronic coupling resulting from electron delocalization and electron transfer between the ligands and the gold core. The ability to mass-select target compounds and record data at 10 K increases the resolution of our spectra, allowing us to study these clusters in greater detail.<br/>

Isolation and characterization of gold nanoparticle surface stabilizing species

256th National Meeting (2018)

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