X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy Studies of Thiolate-protected Gold Nanoclusters with FCC-, HCP- and BCC-like Core Geometry
Abstract
Research on thiolate-protected gold nanoclusters (AuSR NCs) has recently attracted a great deal of interests due to their intriguing atomic structure and promising applications in catalysis, nanoelectronics, bio-detection, and so on. Among the AuSR NCs reported so far, the NCs with face centered cubic (FCC)-like core structure are particularly interesting because of its similar geometry to bulk gold. In addition, hexagonal-close-packed (HCP)-like and body-centered cubic (BCC)-like AuSR NCs have also been discovered recently, and thus it will be important to understand how such new core geometry will influence their bonding properties.
In this thesis, the focus is placed on the experimental and theoretical X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) studies of the local structure and bonding properties of FCC-like, HCP-like and BCC-like AuSR NCs: Au44(SR)28, Au30(SR)18 and Au38S2(SR)20.