Nanocrystal Gold Molecules
Robert L. Whetten, Joseph T. Khoury, Marcos M. Alvarez, Srihari Murthy, Igor Vezmar, Z. L. Wang, Peter W. Stephens, Charles L. Cleveland, W. D. Luedtke, and Uzi Landmand

Abstract:

The creation of perfect nanometer-scale crystallites (nanocrystals), identically replicated in unlimited quantities, in a state that can be manipulated and understood as pure macromolecular substances, is an ultimate challenge of modern materials research with outstanding fundamental and potential technological consequences.^[1] We report on the prediction, isolation, and characterization of a series of gold nanocrystals, passivated by self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of straight-chain alkylthiolate molecules (RS, R = n-C_nH_2n+1 ),^[2] as highly purified molecular materials of high intrinsic stability. Such isolation is imperative for gaining a fundamental understanding of the nature of such materials and of the size-evolutionary patterns of their properties.

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