Zerovalent gold

A Pulse Radiolysis Study of Bivalent and Zerovalent Gold in Aqueous Solutions... 

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. 

Alkali metal anions have also been generated as a result of cryptand stabilization of the corresponding cation. Cryptands were found to enhance the solubility of zerovalent alkali metals in various organic solvents.156-157 Initially, the solutions apparently contain the cryptate cation and solvated electrons together with free ligand. When more metal is dissolved, metal anions, M , are formed.158 Dye and co-workers have isolated gold-colored crystals of [Na+ c 2.2.2]Na 159160 and the crystal structure has been determined.161,162 Anion clusters such as Sb] , Pb2 and Sn," have been isolated as crystalline salts of the [2.2.2] cryptate counterion [2.2.2].162,163... 

The next question to be asked concerns the composition of the particles. For the case of monometallic particles this could in principal be a trivial question. If the particle is known to contain a single element, the only question which then arises concerns the oxidation states of the metal, and this can be determined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. For example, the colloidal metals described in Section 6.2.2.1 and prepared by Dye and coworkers by alkalide and electride reduction of salts of gold, copper, platinum, nickel, and molybdenum (as well as several main group metals and metalloids) were analyzed by XPS [73] which showed the presence of only zerovalent metal. Oxidized metal was detected only for nickel and molybdenum (among the transition metals) and this only after exposure to an oxidizing solvent such as methanol. These results show that if a sufficiently powerful reducing agent is used in the colloid synthesis, the surface of the particles can be kept in a reduced metallic state. 

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