Thiol-derivatized gold clusters

Figure 5.1. Dry thiol-derivatized gold cluster sample.

Thiol-derivatized gold clusters are materials stable for months in air at room temperature which can be handled like simple chemical compounds. They have a hydrophobic nature and consequently are very soluble in aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons (e.g., heptane, cyclohexane, benzene), chlorine solvents (e.g., chloroform, carbon tetrachloride, dichloroethane), and ethers (e.g., diethyl... 

In this chapter, two new approaches for the synthesis of metal-polymer nanocomposite materials have been described. The first method allows the preparation of contact-free dispersions of passivated gold clusters in polystyrene, and it is based on a traditional technique for the colloidal gold synthesis—that is, the alcoholic reduction of tetrachloroauric acid in presence of poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) as polymeric stabilizer. The primary function of the stabilizer is to avoid cluster sintering, but it also allows us to isolate clusters by co-precipitation. It has been found that the obtained polymer-protected nanometric gold particles can be dissolved in alkane-thiol alcoholic solutions to yield thiol-derivatized gold clusters by thiol absorbtion on the metal surface. Differently from other approaches for thioaurite synthesis available in the literature, this method allows complete control over the passivated gold cluster structure since a number of thiol molecules can be equivalently used and the... 

Carotenuto, G., and Nicolais, L., Size-controlled synthesis of thiol-derivatized gold clusters, J. Mater. Chem, 13, 1038-1041 (2003). 

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