Ligand‐Mediated Highly Ordered Aggregation of 5‐Mercapto‐2‐Nitrobenzoic Acid Protected Atomically Precise Silver Nanocluster
Understanding self-assembly of atomically precise nanoclusters is of paramount interest in designing various aggregated super-structures. Here pH-mediated self-assembly is reported of atomically precise Ag<sub>44</sub>(MNBA)<sub>30</sub> (MNBA = 5-mercapto-2-nitrobenzoic acid) nanoclusters in aqueous solution. These nanoclusters formed hexagonal close-packed (hcp) structures when the pH of the solution is reduced from basic to neutral. High-resolution transmission microscopy result confirms bilayer and multilayer assembly at neutral pH. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis, and molecular dynamics simulation delineate ligand-mediated inter-cluster interactions such as ligand to metal core coordination, H─bonding and π-π interactions playing a crucial role in the formation of the hexagonal close-packed self-assembled structure.
Authors
- Vikas Tiwari (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4510-253X)
- Indranath Chakraborty (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4195-9384)
- Tarak Karmakar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8721-6247)
- Soumyadip Roy (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9342-5248)
Institutions
- Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IN)
- Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Small
- Published
- 2025-02-07
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.202412468
- Citations
- 7
- Primary Topic
- Nanocluster Synthesis and Applications
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 3.62
Funders
- Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration
- Science and Engineering Research Board