Covalently Binding Atomically Designed Au9 Clusters to Chemically Modified Graphene

Concha Bosch-Navarro; Zachary P L Laker; Helen R Thomas; Alexander J Marsden; Jeremy Sloan; Neil R Wilson; Jonathan P Rourke

doi:10.1002/anie.201504334

Covalently Binding Atomically Designed Au9 Clusters to Chemically Modified Graphene

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2015 Aug 10;54(33):9560-3. doi: 10.1002/anie.201504334. Epub 2015 Jul 6.

Authors

Concha Bosch-Navarro^{1

2}, Zachary P L Laker³, Helen R Thomas⁴, Alexander J Marsden³, Jeremy Sloan³, Neil R Wilson⁵, Jonathan P Rourke⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL (UK). concepcion.bosch@uv.es.
² Department of Chemistry, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL (UK). concepcion.bosch@uv.es.
³ Department of Physics, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL (UK).
⁴ Department of Chemistry, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL (UK).
⁵ Department of Physics, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL (UK). Neil.Wilson@warwick.ac.uk.
⁶ Department of Chemistry, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL (UK). j.rourke@warwick.ac.uk.

Abstract

Atomic-resolution transmission electron microscopy was used to identify individual Au9 clusters on a sulfur-functionalized graphene surface. The clusters were preformed in solution and covalently attached to the surface without any dispersion or aggregation. Comparison of the experimental images with simulations allowed the rotational motion, without lateral displacement, of individual clusters to be discerned, thereby demonstrating a robust covalent attachment of intact clusters to the graphene surface.

Keywords: gold nanoparticles; graphene; graphene oxide; nanoclusters; thiols.

© 2015 The Authors. Published by Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.