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Synthesis and Study of Silver Molecular Nanoparticles

Wickramasinghe, Sameera Madhusanka
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1438866207

Abstract Details

2015, Master of Science, University of Toledo, College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics.
Molecular nanoparticles have been intensely studied over the last two decades due to their unique physicochemical properties and potential applications in a wide range of fields, such as electronics, photovoltaics, catalysis, sensing, and medicine. As a result of intense research on nanoparticle synthesis over this time, synthetic conditions have been improved to provide conditions that favor a single-sized molecular product, often avoiding the polydisperse product formation observed in early nanoparticle syntheses. Despite being able to synthesize single-sized molecular nanoparticles, the knowledge of the formation mechanism for molecular nanoparticles is still limited. Herein, a study involving a particularly stable molecular nanoparticle, namely, M4Ag44(SR)30, was used to explore the chemistry of yielding single-sized products, which will expand our knowledge on molecular nanoparticle stability and synthesis. During this study, a variety of protecting ligands with different functional groups and structures were used aiming to synthesize M4Ag44(SR)30 nanoparticles. It was found that the formation of M4Ag44(SR)30 nanoparticles is very sensitive to the structural features of the protecting ligands used in the synthesis. To further understand molecular nanoparticle chemistry it is also important to understand the interactions of the metal with the protecting ligand, so that molecular nanoparticles may be tuned for future applications. The solved crystal structure of M4Ag44(SR)30 revealed the structural motif of the silver-thiol interface, which was shown to differ from the gold-thiol interface for gold molecular nanoparticles. In order to understand and generalize the chemistry of silver molecular nanoparticles, there is a need to study more structures. In this study, a new silver molecular nanoparticle was successfully synthesized and characterized. This silver molecular nanoparticle was protected with aromatic thiols, and has the molecular formula, M3Ag17(TBBT)12, (TBBT = 4-tert-Butylbenzenethiol). Furthermore, in combination with experimental data and computational calculations a possible crystal structure was predicted for M3Ag17(TBBT)12. The predicted structure of M3Ag17(TBBT)12 can be used to test the generalization of molecular nanoparticles structural motifs, which will lead to a deeper understanding of this class of materials.
Terry Bigioni (Committee Chair)
Mark R. Mason (Committee Member)
Dragan Isailovic (Committee Member)
65 p.
Chemistry
molecular nanoparticles

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Wickramasinghe, S. M. (2015). Synthesis and Study of Silver Molecular Nanoparticles [Master's thesis, University of Toledo]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1438866207

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Wickramasinghe, Sameera. Synthesis and Study of Silver Molecular Nanoparticles . 2015. University of Toledo, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1438866207.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Wickramasinghe, Sameera. "Synthesis and Study of Silver Molecular Nanoparticles ." Master's thesis, University of Toledo, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1438866207

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

toledo1438866207
881
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This open access ETD is published by University of Toledo and OhioLINK.