Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol.137, No.30, 9511-9514, 2015
Mono-Mercury Doping of Au-25 and the HOMO/LUMO Energies Evaluation Employing Differential Pulse Voltammetry
Controlling the bimetal nanoparticle with atomic mono dispersity is still challenging. Herein, a monodisperse bimetal nanoparticle is synthesized in 25% yield (on gold atom basis) by an unusual replacement method. The formula of the nanoparticle is determined to be Au24Hg1 (PET)(18) (PET: phenylethanethiolate) by high-resolution ESI-MS spectrometry in conjunction with multiple analyses including X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). X-ray single-crystal diffraction reveals that the Structure of Au24Hg1(PET)(18) remains the structural framework of Au25(PET)(18) with one of the outer-shell gold atoms replaced by one Hg atom, which is further supported by theoretical calculations and experimental results as well. Importantly, differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) is first employed to estimate the highest occupied molecular orbit (HOMO) and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbit (LUMO) energies of Au24Hg1(PET)(18) based on previous calculations.