Metals, colloidal stability

Two approaches have been studied in the past to avoid metal leaching, either by metal colloids stabilized in miceUar core or catalyst bound to the micellar structures and will therefore discussed in the following sections. 

The reduction of metal salts using tetraalkylammonium-hydrotriorganoborates in organic solvents yields metal colloids stabilized by NR4+(1II). The metal particles are well protected by the long-chain alkylgroups which make the colloids very soluble in lipophilic organic phases. 

Finally, the term steric stabihzation coifid be used to describe protective transition-metal colloids with traditional ligands or solvents [38]. This stabilization occurs by (i) the strong coordination of various metal nanoparticles with ligands such as phosphines [48-51], thiols [52-55], amines [54,56-58], oxazolines [59] or carbon monoxide [51] (ii) weak interactions with solvents such as tetrahydrofuran or various alcohols. Several examples are known with Ru, Ft and Rh nanoparticles [51,60-63]. In a few cases, it has been estab-hshed that a coordinated solvent such as heptanol is present at the surface and acts as a weakly coordinating ligand [61]. 

As alternatives to amphiphilic betaines, a wide range of cationic, anionic, and non-ionic surfactants including environmentally benign sugar soaps have been successfully used as colloidal stabilizers [201]. Electrochemical reduction of the metal salts provides a very clean access to water soluble nanometal colloids [192]. 

Solvents such as organic liquids can act as stabilizers [204] for metal colloids, and in case of gold it was even reported that the donor properties of the medium determine the sign and the strength of the induced charge [205]. Also, in case of colloidal metal suspensions even in less polar solvents electrostatic stabilization effects have been assumed to arise from the donor properties of the respective liquid. Most common solvent stabilizations have been achieved with THF or propylenecarbonate. For example, smallsized clusters of zerovalent early transition metals Ti, Zr, V, Nb, and Mn have been stabilized by THF after [BEt3H ] reduction of the pre-formed THF adducts (Equation (6)) [54,55,59,206]. Table 1 summarizes the results. 

Table 1. THF-stabilized organosols of early transition metals. (Reprinted from Ref. [53], 2007, with permission from Wiley-VCH.) Solvent Stabilized Early Transition Metal Colloids...

Reductive Stabilization of Metal Colloids by Aluminium Alkyls... 

Bifunctional spacer molecules of different sizes have been used to construct nanoparticle networks formed via self-assembly of arrays of metal colloid particles prepared via reductive stabilization [88,309,310]. A combination of physical methods such as TEM, XAS, ASAXS, metastable impact electron spectroscopy (MIES), and ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS) has revealed that the particles are interlinked through rigid spacer molecules with proton-active functional groups to bind at the active aluminium-carbon sites in the metal-organic protecting shells [88]. 

Reetz et al. have used N-(octyl)4Br-stabilized Pd colloids (typical size, e.g., 3nm) as precursors to form so-called cortex-catalysts, where the active metal forms an extremely fine shell of less than lOnm on the supports (e.g., AI2O3). Within the first 1-4 s, the impregnation of AI2O3 pellets by dispersed nanostructured metal colloids leads to the time-dependent penetration of the support which is complete after 10 s. Cortex catalysts were reported to show a threefold higher activity in olefin hydrogenation than conventionally prepared catalysts of the same metal loading (5% Pd on AI2O3) [388]. 

A review of preparative methods for metal sols (colloidal metal particles) suspended in solution is given. The problems involved with the preparation and stabilization of non-aqueous metal colloidal particles are noted. A new method is described for preparing non-aqueous metal sols based on the clustering of solvated metal atoms (from metal vaporization) in cold organic solvents. Gold-acetone colloidal solutions are discussed in detail, especially their preparation, control of particle size (2-9 nm), electrophoresis measurements, electron microscopy, GC-MS, resistivity, and related studies. Particle stabilization involves both electrostatic and steric mechanisms and these are discussed in comparison with aqueous systems. 

Protective Colloids. Another approach in preparing and stabilizing metal colloids is by adsorption of macromolecules on their surfaces. A wide variety of materials have been used including gummy gelatinous liquids,(J 0) albumin,(27) Icelandic moss,(28) latex,(22) polyvinylpyrrolidone, (29) antibodies, ( 30 ) carbowax 20M, ( 31 ) polyvinylpyridine, (31 ) and various polymer-water/oil-water mixtures.( 2) These studies clearly indicate that "steric stabilization of metal colloids is also important (along with electronic stabilization).(33)... 

More direct and successful methods for the preparation of non-aqueous metal sols are desirable. Especially valuable would be a method that avoids the metal salt reduction step (and thus avoids contamination by other reagents), avoids electrical discharge methods which decompose organic solvents, and avoids macromolecule stabilization. Such a method would provide pure, non-aqueous metal colloids and should make efficient use of precious metals employed. Such colloids would be valuable technologically in many ways. They would also be valuable to study so that more could be learned about particle stabilization mechanisms in non-aqueous media, of which little is known at the present time. 

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