Progress in the Synthesis and Characterization of Gold Nanoclusters

Quantum-sized, thiolate-protected gold nanoclusters (NCs) with atomic precision have attracted substantial research attention over the past decades due to their interesting optical, electronic properties and unusually high catalytic activities. However, despite the remarkable success has been made in the synthesis and characterization of gold nanoclusters, most synthetic approaches suffer from the production of a mixture of different cluster sizes and often a quite low yield of specific sized clusters. Therefore, the products have to be separated on the basis of various complicated processes. The difficulty in isolating and purifying nanoclusters has become a major obstacle to the practical applications of metal nanocluster materials. On the other hand, intensive studies have shown that the optical, electronic, and catalytic properties of gold nanoclusters are strongly dependent on the core size, composition, and structure. Thus, it is highly desirable to develop facile protocols that permit the synthesis, isolation, purification, and characterization of monodispersed, atomically precise gold nanoclusters with control over size in order to fully understand their size-dependent properties. This chapter describes the recent progress in the synthesis, characterization, and study of monodispersed gold nanoclusters.