3D to 2D reorganization of silver-thiol nanostructures, triggered by solvent vapor annealing
Journal article, 2018

Metal-organic composites are of great interest for a wide range of applications. The control of their structure remains a challenge, one of the problems being a complex interplay of covalent and supramolecular interactions. This paper describes the self-assembly, thermal stability and phase transitions of ordered structures of silver atoms and thiol molecules spanning from the molecular to the mesoscopic scale. Building blocks of molecularly defined clusters formed from 44 silver atoms, each particle coated by a monolayer of 30 thiol ligands, are used as ideal building blocks. By changing solvent and temperature it is possible to tune the self-assembled 3D crystals of pristine nanoparticles or, conversely, 2D layered structures, with alternated stacks of Ag atoms and thiol monolayers. The study investigates morphological, chemical and structural stability of these materials between 25 and 300 °C in situ and ex situ at the nanoscale by combining optical and electronic spectroscopic and scattering techniques, scanning probe microscopies and density-functional theory (DFT) calculations. The proposed wet-chemistry approach is relatively cheap, easy to implement, and scalable, allowing the fabricated materials with tuned properties using the same building blocks.

Author

Simone Dell'Elce

Consiglo Nazionale Delle Richerche

F. Liscio

Consiglo Nazionale Delle Richerche

Alessandro Kovtun

Consiglo Nazionale Delle Richerche

Stefano Allegri

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL)

Otello M. Roscioni

University of Bologna

Cristiano Albonetti

Consiglo Nazionale Delle Richerche

Giovanna De Luca

University of Messina

Heinz W. Amenitsch

University of Graz

Nicola Demitri

Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste

Loris Giorgini

University of Bologna

V. Morandi

Consiglo Nazionale Delle Richerche

Francesco Stellacci

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL)

A. Liscio

Consiglo Nazionale Delle Richerche

Vincenzo Palermo

Consiglo Nazionale Delle Richerche

Chalmers, Industrial and Materials Science, Materials and manufacture

Nanoscale

2040-3364 (ISSN) 2040-3372 (eISSN)

Vol. 10 48 23018-23026

Subject Categories

Inorganic Chemistry

Physical Chemistry

Materials Chemistry

DOI

10.1039/c8nr07109h

PubMed

30506071

More information

Latest update

10/23/2022