One-pot synthesis of Au 144 (SCH 2 Ph) 60 nanoclusters and their catalytic application

• Published in: Journal of materials chemistry. A, Materials for energy and sustainability Vol. 3; no. 40; pp. 20167 - 20173
• Main Authors: Liu, Chao, Yan, Chunyang, Lin, Jizhi, Yu, Changlin, Huang, Jiahui, Li, Gao
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• ISSN: 2050-7488; 2050-7496
• DOI: 10.1039/C5TA05747G

Here, we report the one-pot synthesis of atomically precise gold nanoclusters – Au 144 (SCH 2 Ph) 60 with moderate efficiency ( ca. 20% yield based on HAuCl 4 ). The Au 144 (SCH 2 Ph) 60 nanoclusters are obtained from the polydispersed Au n (SG) m nanoclusters in the presence of excess H–SCH 2 Ph ligands via a combination of “ligand-exchange” and “size-focusing” processes. The as-obtained Au 144 (SCH 2 Ph) 60 nanoclusters are well determined by UV-vis spectroscopy and electrospray ionization (ESI) mass spectrometry, and in conjunction with matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). The purity of the Au 144 (SCH 2 Ph) 60 nanoclusters is further characterized by size exclusion chromatography (SEC) and elemental analysis. The powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) analysis implies that the Au 144 (SCH 2 Ph) 60 nanoclusters do not adopt the face-centered cubic (fcc) structure, as the diffraction angle (2 θ = 50.5°) is only observed in the Au 144 (SCH 2 Ph) 60 nanoclusters. Further, the Au 144 (SCH 2 Ph) 60 /TiO 2 catalyst exhibits excellent catalytic performance (92% conversion of methyl phenyl sulfide with 99% selectivity for sulfoxide) in the selective sulfoxidation; size-dependence of the gold nanocluster catalyst is observed in the catalytic reactions: Au 144 (SCH 2 Ph) 60 > Au 99 (SPh) 42 > Au 38 (SCH 2 CH 2 Ph) 24 > Au 25 (SCH 2 CH 2 Ph) 18 .