New Insights into the Chemistry of Thiol-Protected Palladium Nanoparticles

GASTON CORTHEY; ALDO A. RUBERT; ANDREA LORENA PICONE; GILBERTO CASILLAS; LISANDRO J. GIOVANETTI; JOSE M. RAMALLO-LOPEZ; EUGENIA ZELAYA; GUILLERMO A. BENITEZ; FELIX G. REQUEJO; MIGUEL JOSE-YACAMAN; MARIANO HERNÁN FONTICELLI

JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY C

AMER CHEMICAL SOC

Lugar: Washington; Año: 2012 vol. 116 p. 9830 - 9837

1932-7447

This paper establishes the chemical nature of Pd nanoparticles protected by alkanethiolates that were prepared through a ligand place exchange approach and the two-phase method, first developed for Au nanoparticles by Brust and Schiffrin. After 10 years since the first study on this kind of Pd nanoparticles was published, the surface composition of the particles is a matter of debate in the literature and it has not been unambiguously assessed. The nanoparticles were studied by means of several techniques: UV-visible spectroscopy, scanning transmission electron microscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, extended X-ray absorption fine structure, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The experimental data, obtained for the 3 nm diameter Pd particles, prepared by both synthetic routes, are consistent with nanoparticles composed by Pd(0) cores surrounded by a submonolayer of sulfide species, which are protected by alkanethiolates. Also, we unambiguously demonstrate that the chemical nature of these particles is very similar to that experimentally found for alkanethiolate-modified bulk Pd. The results from this paper are important not only for handling thiolate-protected Pd nanoparticles in catalysis and sensing, but also for the basic comprehension of metallic nanoparticles and the relation of their surface structure with the synthesis method.