Atomically precise ~1-nm Pt nanoparticles (nanoclusters, NCs) with ambient stability are important in fundamental research and exhibit diverse practical applications (catalysis, biomedicine, etc.). However, synthesizi...
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Atomically precise ~1-nm Pt nanoparticles (nanoclusters, NCs) with ambient stability are important in fundamental research and exhibit diverse practical applications (catalysis, biomedicine, etc.). However, synthesizing such materials is challenging. Herein, by employing the mixture ligand protecting strategy, we successfully synthesized the largest organic-ligand-protected (~1-nm) Pt 23 NCs precisely characterized with mass spectrometry and single-crystal X-ray diffraction analyses. Interestingly, natural population analysis and Bader charge calculation indicate an alternate, varying charge -layer distribution in the sandwich-like Pt 23 NC kernel. Pt 23 NCs can catalyze the oxygen reduction reaction under acidic conditions without requiring calcination and other treatments, and the resulting specific and mass activities without further treatment are sevenfold and eightfold higher than those observed for commercial Pt/C catalysts, respectively. Density functional theory and d -band center calculations interpret the high activity. Furthermore, Pt 23 NCs exhibit a photothermal conversion efficiency of 68.4 % under 532-nm laser irradiation and can be used at least for six cycles, thus demonstrating great potential for practical applications.
Lattice tuning at the ≈1 nm scale is fascinating and challenging; for instance, lattice compression at such a minuscule scale has not been observed. The lattice compression might also bring about some unusual propert...
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Lattice tuning at the ≈1 nm scale is fascinating and challenging; for instance, lattice compression at such a minuscule scale has not been observed. The lattice compression might also bring about some unusual properties, which waits to be verified. Through ligand induction, we herein achieve the lattice compression in a ≈1 nm gold nanocluster for the first time, as detected by the single-crystal X-ray crystallography. In a freshly synthesized Au 52 (CHT) 28 (CHT=S- c −C 6 H 11 ) nanocluster, the lattice distance of the (110) facet is found to be compressed from 4.51 to 3.58 Å at the near end. However, the lattice distances of the (111) and (100) facets show no change in different positions. The lattice-compressed nanocluster exhibits superior electrocatalytic activity for the CO 2 reduction reaction (CO 2 RR) compared to that exhibited by the same-sized Au 52 (TBBT) 32 (TBBT=4- tert -butyl-benzenethiolate) nanocluster and larger Au nanocrystals without lattice variation, indicating that lattice tuning is an efficient method for tailoring the properties of metal nanoclusters. Further theoretical calculations explain the high CO 2 RR performance of the lattice-compressed Au 52 (CHT) 28 and provide a correlation between its structure and catalytic activity.
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